Jerry Saltz
Appearances
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It began two days before Easter 1975, before everybody here was born. It was supposed to end on Easter the year 2000. Okay, that's...
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, and I made it as far as the third canto. The work was well received. But as you know, with all the great stuff happening to you, how old are you? I am 39 years old. Already. You think I'm over the hill, I'm washed up.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, mine hurts, and I have aches and pains. Nothing will protect you. So all I can offer is to say to yourself, I'm not going to look at others, the accomplishment of others. I'm going to just look at myself. You are cause in the matter. You created your situation, not all of their success. So make an enemy of envy.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And it's like an old address or your... It's a thing that's very dear to me.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Anybody listening to this podcast will understand this. You would never look at every goddamn New York Jets game and say, they're so great. Oh my God, their offensive line is off the charts fantastic. No, love means also being critical. Movie critics aren't supposed to like everything. Wine writers don't love every wine. But for some reason... Art critics are expected to love everything.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Okay. It's very dear to me. It's a childhood resonance. Got it. Got it. I know what it is. It's okay.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I would say that we're living in a period of culture where criticism has seemed to leave the building, meaning that everyone's afraid. I know what we're afraid of. We're afraid of being called racist, sexist, homophobes, xenophobes. So what's happened... I think through a lack of nerve, but also a dramatic shift in what criticism is in the present. Now criticism holds things up.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
We put this woman artist above us and we hold her up or that queer artist above us. I'm all for that. The art world had closed doors for 50,000 years. Where are all the Asian artists in Western art history? There aren't any because we didn't believe it was possible. I imagine sports is going through something similar but on a corporate level as it becomes more and more and more monetized.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Oh, sure.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, or whatever the number is, it's an obscene amount of money. It's offensive. you could uh fund every rape kit left languishing on the shelves in america for 10 years for that one painting but on the other hand somebody wanted the painting you only need two people to bid on something that's right and i hate auctions but i accept them as part of our current reality on the other hand
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It leaves an opening for everyone else who isn't obsessed with money. We all want it. I get that. We're supposed to be jealous of everyone making $59 million. But it leaves an opening for art to get on with its business. And it's doing just great.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
having huge hits of what Werner Herzog called ecstatic truths, which means opening spaces for consciousness to step outside yourself, to slow time down. There's still space for that, but not out there in the market.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I said it was because, listen, I loved the Amy Sherald portrait of Michelle Obama, mind you. So these two paintings were presented at the same time. Kehinde Wiley's painting is because it's photo realism. Good for photo realism. It projects an image. You get a picture, you project it, you paint it perfect, you send it to China, they can do it.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Kehinde has his studio fill in a cuckoo background and sets Barack on an African chair. I guess that's his contribution. And as a painting, It is completely unoriginal. As an image of Obama, it's unlike every other presidential portrait ever made. So it depends how you, I judge it as a thing, not as what the artist says it is. My wife says no artist owns the meaning of their own work.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
In other words, each of us, as Oscar Wilde said, when we read a book, we're not reading the author. You're reading yourself. When you read Dante, you are reading yourself into Dante, into Shakespeare, into Mozart, into Jay-Z, into Beyonce, whoever. The other portrait was much better of Amy Sherald.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's a pleasure. I love, I've heard of you. I was thrilled to come here, but I've never listened because I don't.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Bingo. And you know what? There are a lot of artists like that. I can tell you their names if you want to go. They will never make you go deep. What they'll make you do is they'll tell you what you already know and they'll tell you the same thing over and over again. And that's very reassuring. I don't look to art to be reassured. That's also saying, oh, a black woman could be Napoleon.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's a cool thought, but it would be cooler if you could make it a cooler painting. And he can't do it. And other artists do. Do you know who Dwayne Wade is? I do not know. Who is Dwayne Wade? This is perfect.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
So that's Dwayne Wade, great, great athlete.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's true. It doesn't look anything like him. What I'll say is that is an absolute s***. work of art because it looks like a little mini statue on an idiotic store-bought trophy and it's just got it there's nothing to it other than the pose so you want to and he looks like the rock He looks white, which is fine with me, but, you know, it has no character. It has no ambience.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Well, it's not that important to me. I can see that it could be important to people who worship that person. But I would remind all of those worshipers and fans that all the different pictures of Jesus that they've seen are equally realistic and equal fictions. that they're idealized or de-idealized or maybe you like Francis Bacon's exploding Jesus. Maybe that speaks to you.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, we're the last of our kind. All these magazines, The New Yorker, New York. No one knows what we are. I don't know what we do. But what we do, we do better than everybody else until there's no more need for it. And then we'll just go away.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
What this says is I wanted to be a realist sculptor and I found a photograph and I made it without paying much attention to it at all. other than the signature pose. So in the next generation, we'll look at that sculpture and see metal. They won't see a person. They won't see a likeness. They'll see a material, and even the material isn't that interesting. Right, the bronze.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's all they're going to see. I promise you. It looks like a lot of academic sculpture. You know, the mouth is open. I can see the teeth. Somebody got in there and filed them down. Good on them. Good technique, I guess. That's good. I would pay $400 for that and put it in a backyard at best. There's nothing wrong with that. That's fun.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I'd love to hear it.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It looks like art by committee. That's what it is. It looks like art by more than one person with no touch, no hand, only an idea. They're not even artists, those two guys. They're entrepreneurs. They're scammers. They don't know it. Listen.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
To me, I allege that they might be scammers in this sense, that Oscar Wilde said all the worst poetry is sincere. So what? That they sincerely wanted to make this realistic. Good on them. I didn't take that away from them. I don't think it looks like anybody.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
No, that's fine. Dwayne Reed liked it, and he's cool with it. And could they have made something magnificent? Yes, they could. But they could have also made something much worse. It could have been a piece of string, you know, tied to a chain, some bulls**t. That happens as well. So this is a happy medium between thinking and non-thinking that looks like a photograph in three dimensions.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
What do you think of this sculpture?
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I've stood there. I've posed with him. What I want to say is that some of the greatest sculpture ever made was made in Greece and Rome of athletes.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Okay.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
This... As much as I love the first Rocky movie.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's been a good run. That's all I'll say. It's been a great run. Yeah, it's like the New York Jets, you know. They have to completely rethink everything. We hate them and screw them. Yeah, yeah. Are you a sports fan? I am a big football fan and a baseball fan. I'm a Yankee fan and the Jets and Giants. And that's it. And I'm a huge F1 nerd since the TV show and the pre-pandemic and all of that.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, watch it. You know, it has a happy ending, whatever. But the point is, as a work of art... It only goes to the Wade Johnson place. You could put the name Wade Johnson on this. It would be the same. The pose has- Oh, the Dwayne Wade, you mean. The Dwayne Wade.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
So I love it. So this is another... Is that you? No. Oh, that's Sylvester Stallone. Ha ha ha ha! He's as tall as I am. I love him. He's a big Trump guy, but he's done good work. And you know what? That's true. All that's true. It's fine. You know, Dwayne Reed and that guy, they contributed a lot to the culture.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
They should get statues of themselves.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
You should. I just hope that yours will be better.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Can I see the close-up of the humunculus beneath him? Wow. Wow.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
The figure underneath... Michael is great, and he's got an extra face. His face has fallen off. It's like an arm with, like, 70 figures. I mean, here's what's great. The pose of this and the juxtaposition of the super realist, this is better for one reason. The idea of the Baroque means... The Baroque back in the 1600s was the invention of movies, of the cinematic, dramatic, melodramatic motion.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Action, action. This is an action shot. This is a frozen moment in time. The basketball is just on Michael's fingertips. His left hand is giving himself balance. His feet are spread out for maximum height and balance. The person underneath him becomes meaningless. Right, as if they are every person he's ever jumped over. It's you. That's mortal reality, immortal reality.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Again, the realism is what it is. That's not bad. He's like his hair under his arm. His lip is being clenched. He's like staring at the target. There's stuff going on there. Who made that one?
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
His holder work is better. Yeah.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And that's what makes you a great commentator and podcaster. You understand that. The quality has been determined in this case by the market picking something the market already picked.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Okay? And you're getting that self-reiterative quality. smoothing out and deadening that that will do.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I would call it a travesty of mimosas, meaning it doesn't look anything mimetic art because it doesn't look even remotely. They've taken a thin woman, a blonde, and made her into Gertrude Stein. And for that, that's kind of interesting. Or, you know, like a Russian policewoman.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. No. If I were Brandy, I might be a little miffed, but... You know, I don't think athletes even think that way.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
God. Yes, that's the grimace. I don't know where the grimace came from.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's a picture of Gary Busey.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
So this is... That could be a great piece of folk art. That is a great piece of f***ed up, super crazy, manneristic, meaning the neck is about a foot and a half long, the hair is standing up and out, the face is completely crooked, the eyes are asymmetrical. The eyes are doing a lot here. He's looking at with sheer madness... I'd love to meet that artist.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's well said. I think if we saw the picture of the artist, we don't know. But that is one great sculpture. Whoa. So you love this one. Not of Ronaldo. It is not Ronaldo. That's fine.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I would tell that artist to push all these ideas, get rid of the computer, get rid of the realism, and just go for it.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's mad.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's facing him now. I know what I think.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
What are some of the thoughts that you're having when you look at the face?
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Wow. It's larger than life size, slightly larger. It's really impressive.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
All right, I'm coming around. This is f***ing incredible.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah. I don't know what to say. I'm a fair weather fan. I used to go, oh, we're boring your audience. Let's move on. Yeah.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
See, I thought you looked like JFK. Here, touch it.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's butter.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's Naples yellow butter. You have a great open collar, a T-shirt.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
You look like a statesman, actually.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Well, I'm a huge fan of butter sculpture being from the Midwest. Oh, that's right. Yeah. We have in Wisconsin, there's a whole tradition of it. I'm mad for it. I also look at ice sculptures. A corn sculpture is a big favorite of mine. This is just lovely. I think it's just lovely. I want to touch it a lot. I'm going to touch it a little. Put his head next to it.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Let me get my phone and take its picture.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And I'll make you famous or something.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Well, I think it's a great, quiet, mute, stately object.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Wow.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
God, you're a bigger man than I am. Is there a way to preserve this? Apparently, we have a couple of hours. Okay. I want you to document it. Because it'll get better. It'll get much better as it loses its structural integrity and becomes more abstract and melts. There's an artist named Urs Feinstein. Yeah.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
A Swiss visual artist. And put in candle sculptures. Wow. Huge melted candle sculptures. Right. Document that. You'll get famous. And you can get the hell out of the podcast game.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
You got that for free. You didn't need anything. You just needed your beautiful self and art.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Follow me at Jerry Salts. I did this by accident. A student signed me up for it, gave me the password, which I don't even know. I accidentally cannot get on the Twitter or the Facebook. No, I can't get on Facebook. You were banned from Facebook at one point. Right. I had over a half million followers. I have like six or seven hundred thousand now. But who's counting?
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
But I am because it's all I have.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
For me, my second self. is my first self. And what I mean by that is my life is so boring and so limited. I see 25 or 30 shows a week, painting shows, sculpture shows at museums, galleries, alternative spaces in New York. And then I go home and I become terrified that I have to write about these.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I've not gone out to dinner with anybody in decades because I'm a social misfit on the one hand and have nothing to talk about. I would sit next to you, a big wig. Oh, yeah. No, you are. The wig is large. And I would say... what art shows have you seen? And you would say, I haven't seen anything. And then I would sit in silence. So I stopped going.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And my wife is the co-chief art critic for The New York Times. A true bigwig, by the way. A true bigwig. She is the real deal. If you want to read art criticism, read Roberta Smith. I'm sorry I'm such a slow talker, but I'm from the Midwest. And so our lives together are at home in fear, getting ready to write, sitting down, writing, writing, writing, and then going out and seeing more shows.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
So my online life is... is where all my fun is. It's where all my talk is. So why were you suspended from Facebook? Well, in around 2015, I was posting a lot of medieval manuscripts which had been... digitalized and rediscovered and were being seen for the first time. A lot of these are very violent, or the ones I would post.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And I would post like a woman having her breasts cut off, a man being castrated. And I would make some wise guy comment like, you know, this is 13th century, this is 8th century, and me coming into your studio if your work is no good. And it turned out that I was not violating any rules of the community. I got a lot of correspondence from Facebook.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
They said thousands of people from the art world protested.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's great art.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Great art. Right. but with my unfortunate commentary seemed, and this was just after Trump won the first Trump regime, and Me Too had just gotten going, And at first, I didn't listen. I said, come on, this is great art. But after a while, they suspended me. And then I got back on after 30 days. But I also rethought it.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I thought, if there's enough people telling me this is uncomfortable for them, I trust that. Men know f**k. nothing, about anything. We barely have an inner life. We think about seeing women naked. This is a straight man. We think about seeing a woman naked. We think about abstract problems like, will there be time travel? And we think about traffic.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, see?
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I graduated at the bottom of my enormous high school class. I come from a very dysfunctional, suburban Chicago family. I had rented an apartment in the city. The night I graduated high school, my parents didn't bother coming to our graduation. I came home, handed them my diploma, and I left home, and I moved into that apartment. I barely went back ever. ever again.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I only know how to use Instagram because a student signed me up and I lost my password. But as long as I can stay logged in, I love it. I don't know how to do anything, though. Like if I had to post this, I'm unable to do it.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
We were friends, but I just didn't care about them. They didn't care about me. It was all fine. I became an artist. I never went to school. Anybody listening to this, I am a much bigger loser than even you. I have no degrees, never went to school. I really don't know anything. I became an artist. I moved to New York when I was 27.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
The same demons that you have, like before I came in here or last night, that said, what are you doing? You can't do this. You don't know what you're doing. I mean, you're pulling the wool over everybody's eyes. You have a bad neck or whatever it is. That is so far all true. All those things I listened to. And I self-exiled from the art world and I became a long-distance truck driver.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That is an absolute sh** work of art because it looks like a little mini statue on an idiotic store-bought trophy. It's crap.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I still hung out in the art world. I would work for a couple of weeks. I would drive from New York to Florida or to Texas, occasionally to California. Did you have a handle like the CB? It was the Jewish Cowboy. And I would get on the CB and I would go, Shalom, partner. Let's talk about the late work of Richard Serra. And none of them ever spoke to me.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Either I'm a slow talker or they just recognized a rube. I did this for 10 years. All I did was drive back and forth. I never went anywhere. I never talked to anybody. I met a prostitute once, and she said, you want a date? And I got terrified, and I ran back to my hotel room in Jacksonville, Florida. That was on the third day I went to work.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And I swore that from now on, I would sleep with every prostitute. And I never met another one. As you can see, I don't put off the vibe. I don't have the sex vibe. You're good looking. People look at you and they want you. I'm old and short and bald and wear glasses that you don't know what it was like.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, nothing. And then I became so desperate and so lonely, I thought, I can't do this anymore. And I thought, what could I do? And I thought, I'll become an art critic. Now, at that point, I had never written a word in my life. I didn't read. I did nothing. I thought, oh, critics could get famous, sleep with women, and make a lot of money.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
None of those things are possible, being an art critic, at all. I was going to say. No. So I became an art critic, and I started writing absolute bullshit. And people seemed to like it. I would write, the late commodified object of post-structuralist capitalism finds its liminal space between interrogating nature and culture, blah, blah, blah.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, and which you should never use. Anyway, so I started writing that way and slowly, I found my own voice. And at 41, I began working. So all of you listening to this, you haven't even begun yet. Get your acts together, you big babies. It's hard. No one said it's going to be easy. You have to work, work, work, work, work, and you have to show up. I'm afraid you can't be like me and hang back.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I didn't hang back then. As much as I was unfit to hang out, I did it. Every night, you have to sacrifice it all. You have to meet other people like yourself. You can't be a vampire alone. You have to have a coven, or whatever those things are called, and have each other to, otherwise you think you know things other people don't know, and that's unlikely. You know nothing.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And you just need to hang out, get to work, and work in your own voice. You have to make an enemy of envy. You cannot look out and have your eyes scanning the world and always be comparing yourself to others.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Well, I had... lit upon one giant project. I think in retrospect, it was to protect me from having to come up with a new idea every time out. I was going to illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy, all 100 cantos or chapters. I was going to do 100 works on each of the 100 cantos and And it would be a 25-year project. I know, I'm nuts. It would be a 25-year project. That's incredible.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It began two days before Easter 1975, before everybody here was born. It was supposed to end on Easter the year 2000. Okay, that's...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, and I made it as far as the third canto. The work was well received. But as you know, with all the great stuff happening to you, how old are you? I am 39 years old. Already. You think I'm over the hill, I'm washed up.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, mine hurts, and I have aches and pains. Nothing will protect you. So all I can offer is to say to yourself, I'm not going to look at others, the accomplishment of others. I'm going to just look at myself. You are cause in the matter. You created your situation, not all of their success. So make an enemy of envy.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And it's like an old address or your... It's a thing that's very dear to me.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Anybody listening to this podcast will understand this. You would never look at every goddamn New York Jets game and say, they're so great. Oh my God, their offensive line is off the charts fantastic. No, love means also being critical. Movie critics aren't supposed to like everything. Wine writers don't love every wine. But for some reason... Art critics are expected to love everything.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's a childhood resonance. Got it. Got it. I know what it is. It's okay.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I would say that we're living in a period of culture where criticism has seemed to leave the building, meaning that everyone's afraid. I know what we're afraid of. We're afraid of being called racist, sexist, homophobes, xenophobes. So what's happened... I think through a lack of nerve, but also a dramatic shift in what criticism is in the present. Now criticism holds things up.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
We put this woman artist above us and we hold her up or that queer artist above us. I'm all for that. The art world had closed doors for 50,000 years. Where are all the Asian artists in Western art history? There aren't any because we didn't believe it was possible. I imagine sports is going through something similar but on a corporate level as it becomes more and more and more monetized.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Oh, sure.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, or whatever the number is, it's an obscene amount of money. It's offensive. You could fund every rape kit left languishing on the shelves in America for 10 years for that one painting. But on the other hand, somebody wanted the painting. You only need two people to bid on something. That's right. And I hate auctions, but I accept them as part of our current reality. On the other hand...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It leaves an opening for everyone else who isn't obsessed with money. We all want it. I get that. We're supposed to be jealous of everyone making $59 million. But it leaves an opening for art to get on with its business. And it's doing just great.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
having huge hits of what Werner Herzog called ecstatic truths, which means opening spaces for consciousness to step outside yourself, to slow time down. There's still space for that, but not out there in the market.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I said it was s*** because, listen, I loved the Amy Sherald portrait of Michelle Obama, mind you. So these two paintings were presented at the same time. Kehinde Wiley's painting is s***. because it's photo realism. Good for photo realism. It projects an image, you get a picture, you project it, you paint it perfect, you send it to China, they can do it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Kehinde has his studio fill in a cuckoo background and sets Barack on an African chair. I guess that's his contribution. And as a painting, it is completely unoriginal. As an image of Obama, it's unlike every other presidential portrait ever made. So it depends how I judge it as a thing, not as what the artist says it is. My wife says no artist owns the meaning of their own work.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
In other words, each of us, as Oscar Wilde said, when we read a book, we're not reading the author. You're reading yourself. When you read Dante, you are reading yourself into Dante, into Shakespeare, into Mozart, into Jay-Z, into Beyonce, whoever. The other portrait was much better of Amy Sherald.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's a pleasure. I love, I've heard of you. I was thrilled to come here, but I've never listened because I don't.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Bingo. And you know what? There are a lot of artists like that. I can tell you their names if you want to go. They will never make you go deep. What they'll make you do is they'll tell you what you already know and they'll tell you the same thing over and over again. And that's very reassuring. I don't look to art to be reassured. That's also saying, oh, a black woman could be Napoleon.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's a cool thought, but it would be cooler if you could make it a cooler painting. And he can't do it. And other artists do. Do you know who Dwayne Wade is? I do not know. Who is Dwayne Wade? This is perfect.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
So that's Dwayne Wade, great, great athlete.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's true. It doesn't look anything like him. What I'll say is that is an absolute s***. work of art because it looks like a little mini statue on an idiotic store-bought trophy and it's just got it there's nothing to it other than the pose so you want to and he looks like the rock He looks white, which is fine with me. But, you know, it has no character. It has no ambience.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Well, it's not that important to me. I can see that it could be important to people who worship that person. But I would remind all of those worshipers and fans that all the different pictures of Jesus that they've seen are equally realistic and equal fictions. that they're idealized or de-idealized, or maybe you like Francis Bacon's exploding Jesus. Maybe that speaks to you.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, we're the last of our kind. All these magazines, The New Yorker, New York. No one knows what we are. I don't know what we do. But what we do, we do better than everybody else until there's no more need for it. And then we'll just go away.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
What this says is I wanted to be a realist sculptor, and I found a photograph, and I made it without paying much attention to it at all. other than the signature pose.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
So in the next generation, we'll look at that sculpture and see metal. They won't see a person. They won't see a likeness. They'll see a material, and even the material isn't that interesting. Right, the bronze. That's all they're going to see. I promise you. It looks like a lot of... academic sculpture. You know, the mouth is open. I can see the teeth. Somebody got in there and filed them down.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Good on them. Good technique, I guess. That's good. I would pay $400 for that and put it in a backyard at best. There's nothing wrong with that. That's fun.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I'd love to hear it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
They have some sort of... It looks like art by committee. That's what it is. It looks like art by more than one person with no touch, no hand, only an idea. They're not even artists, those two guys. They're entrepreneurs. They're scammers. They don't know it. Listen.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
To me, I allege that they might be scammers in this sense, that Oscar Wilde said all the worst poetry is sincere. So what? That they sincerely wanted to make this realistic. Good on them. I didn't take that away from them. I don't think it looks like anybody.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
No, that's fine. Dwayne Reed liked it, and he's cool with it. And could they have made something magnificent? Yes, they could. But they could have also made something much worse. It could have been a piece of string, you know, tied to a chain, some bulls**t. That happens as well. So this is a happy medium between thinking and non-thinking that looks like a photograph in three dimensions.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I've stood there. I've posed with him. What I want to say is that some of the greatest sculpture ever made was made in Greece and Rome of athletes.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's been a good run. That's all I'll say. It's been a great run. Yeah, it's like the New York Jets, you know. They have to completely rethink everything. We hate them and screw them. Yeah, yeah. Are you a sports fan? I am a big football fan and a baseball fan. I'm a Yankee fan and the Jets and Giants. And that's it. And I'm a huge F1 nerd since the TV show and the pre-pandemic and all of that.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Okay.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
This... As much as I love the first Rocky movie.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, watch it. You know, it has a happy ending, whatever. But the point is, as a work of art... It only goes to the Wade Johnson place. You could put the name Wade Johnson on this. It would be the same. The pose has- Oh, the Dwayne Wade, you mean. The Dwayne Wade.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
So this is another- Is that you? No. Oh, that's Sylvester Stallone. Ha ha ha ha! He's as tall as I am.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I love him.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
He's a big Trump guy, but he's done good work. And you know what?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's true.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
All that's true. It's fine. You know, Dwayne Reed and that guy, they contributed a lot to the culture.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
They should get statues of themselves.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
You should. I just hope that yours will be better.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Can I see the close-up of the humunculus beneath him? Wow. Wow.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
The figure underneath... Michael is great, and he's got an extra face. His face has fallen off. It's like an arm with, like, 70 figures. I mean, here's what's great. The pose of this and the juxtaposition of the super realists, this is better for one reason. The idea of the Baroque means... The Baroque back in the 1600s was the invention of movies, of the cinematic, dramatic, melodramatic motion.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Action, action. This is an action shot. This is a frozen moment in time. The basketball is just on Michael's fingertips. His left hand is giving himself balance. His feet are spread out for maximum height and balance. The person underneath him becomes meaningless. Right, as if they are every person he's ever jumped over. It's you. That's mortal reality, immortal reality.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Again, the realism is what it is. That's not bad. He's like his hair under his arm. His lip is being clenched. He's like staring at the target. There's stuff going on there. Who made that one?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
His holder work is better. Yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And that's what makes you a great commentator and podcaster. You understand that. The quality has been determined in this case by the market picking something the market already picked.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Okay? And you're getting that self-reiterative quality. smoothing out and deadening that that will do.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I would call it a travesty of mimosas, meaning it doesn't look anything mimetic art because it doesn't look even remotely. They've taken a thin woman, a blonde, and made her into Gertrude Stein. And for that. That's kind of interesting. Or, you know, like a Russian policewoman. Yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
If I were Brandy, I might be a little miffed, but... You know, I don't think athletes even think that way.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
God. Yes, that's the grimace. I don't know where the grimace came from.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Well, yeah, you got it. It's a picture of Gary Busey. They could change it out.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I do know him.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Because soccer is a great sport and American men can... What? So this is... That could be a great piece of folk art. That is a great piece of f***ed up, super crazy, manneristic, meaning the neck is about a foot and a half long. The hair is standing up and out. The face is completely crooked. The eyes are asymmetrical.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
He's looking at with sheer madness... I'd love to meet that artist.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's well said. I think if we saw the picture of the artist, we don't know. But that is one great sculpture. Whoa. So you love this one. Not of Ronaldo. It is not Ronaldo. That's fine.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I would tell that artist to push all these ideas, get rid of the computer, get rid of the realism, and just go for it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That's mad.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
What do you think? It's facing him now. I know what I think.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
What are some of the thoughts that you're having when you look at the face?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Wow. It's larger than life size, slightly larger. It's really impressive.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah. I don't know what to say. I'm a fair weather fan. I used to go, oh, we're boring your audience. Let's move on. Yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
All right, I'm coming around.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Wow. See, I thought you looked like JFK. Here, touch it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's butter.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
It's Naples yellow butter. You have a great open collar, a T-shirt.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
You look like a statesman, actually.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Well, I'm a huge fan of butter sculpture being from the Midwest. Oh, that's right. Yeah. We have in Wisconsin, there's a whole tradition of it. I'm mad for it. I also looked at ice sculptures. A corn sculpture is a big favorite of mine. This is just lovely. I think it's just lovely. I want to touch it a lot. I'm going to touch it a little.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I'll put his head next to it. Let me get my phone and take its picture.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And I'll make you famous or something.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Well, I think it's a great, quiet, mute, stately object.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Wow.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
God, you're a bigger man than I am. Is there a way to preserve this? Apparently, we have a couple of hours. Okay. I want you to document it. Because it'll get better. It'll get much better as it loses its structural integrity and becomes more abstract and melts. There's an artist named Urs Feinstein.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
fisher yeah oh yeah a swiss visual artist and put in candle sculptures it's melt huge melted candle sculptures right document that you'll get famous and you can get the hell out of the podcast game oh god i uh i've learned i found out so much today jerry um
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
You got that for free. You didn't need anything. You just needed your beautiful self and art.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I will too.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Follow me at Jerry Salts. I did this by accident. A student signed me up for it, gave me the password, which I don't even know. I accidentally cannot get on the Twitter or the Facebook. No, I can't get on Facebook. You were banned from Facebook at one point. Right. I had over a half million followers. I have like six or seven hundred thousand now. But who's counting?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
But I am because it's all I have.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
The Pulitzer Prize for criticism and about, you know, three quarters of a million people.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
For me, my second self. is my first self. And what I mean by that is my life is so boring and so limited. I see 25 or 30 shows a week, painting shows, sculpture shows at museums, galleries, alternative spaces in New York. And then I go home and I become terrified that I have to write about these.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I've not gone out to dinner with anybody in decades because I'm a social misfit on the one hand and have nothing to talk about. I would sit next to you, a big wig. Oh, yeah. No, you are. The wig is large. And I would say... what art shows have you seen? And you would say, I haven't seen anything. And then I would sit in silence. So I stopped going.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And my wife is the co-chief art critic for The New York Times. A true bigwig, by the way. A true bigwig. She is the real deal. If you want to read art criticism, read Roberta Smith. I'm sorry I'm such a slow talker, but I'm from the Midwest. And so our lives together are at home in fear, getting ready to write, sitting down, writing, writing, writing, and then going out and seeing more shows.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
So my online life is... is where all my fun is. It's where all my talk is. So why were you suspended from Facebook? Well, in around 2015, I was posting a lot of medieval manuscripts which had been... digitalized and rediscovered and were being seen for the first time. A lot of these are very violent, or the ones I would post.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And I would post like a woman having her breasts cut off, a man being castrated. And I would make some wise guy comment like, you know, this is 13th century, this is 8th century, and me coming into your studio if your work is no good. And it turned out that I was not violating any rules of the community. I got a lot of correspondence from Facebook.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
They said thousands of people from the art world protested.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Great art. Right. but with my unfortunate commentary seemed, and this was just after Trump won the first Trump regime, and Me Too had just gotten going, And at first, I didn't listen. I said, come on, this is great art. But after a while, they suspended me. And then I got back on after 30 days. But I also rethought it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I thought, if there's enough people telling me this is uncomfortable for them, I trust that. Men know f**k. nothing, about anything. We barely have an inner life. We think about seeing women naked. This is a straight man. We think about seeing a woman naked. We think about abstract problems like, will there be time travel? And we think about traffic.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I graduated at the bottom of my enormous high school class. I come from a very dysfunctional, suburban Chicago family. I had rented an apartment in the city. The night I graduated high school, my parents didn't bother coming to our graduation. I came home, handed them my diploma, and I left home, and I moved into that apartment. I barely went back ever. ever again.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I only know how to use Instagram because a student signed me up and I lost my password. But as long as I can stay logged in, I love it. I don't know how to do anything, though. Like if I had to post this, I'm unable to do it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
We were friends, but I just didn't care about them. They didn't care about me. It was all fine. I became an artist. I never went to school. Anybody listening to this, I am a much bigger loser than even you. I have no degrees, never went to school. I really don't know anything. I became an artist. I moved to New York when I was 27.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
The same demons that you have, like before I came in here or last night, that said, what are you doing? You can't do this. You don't know what you're doing. I mean, you're pulling the wool over everybody's eyes. You have a bad neck or whatever it is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
All those things I listened to. And I self-exiled from the art world and I became a long-distance truck driver. I still hung out in the art world. I would work for a couple of weeks. I would drive from New York to Florida or to Texas, occasionally to California. Did you have a handle like the CB? It was the Jewish Cowboy. And I would get on the CB and I would go, Shalom, partner.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That is an absolute sh** work of art because it looks like a little mini statue on an idiotic store-bought trophy. It's crap.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Let's talk about the late work of Richard Serra. And none of them ever spoke to me. Either I'm a slow talker or they just recognized a rube. I did this for 10 years. All I did was drive back and forth. I never went anywhere. I never talked to anybody. I met a prostitute once, and she said, you want a date? And I got terrified, and I ran back to my hotel room in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
That was on the third day I went to work. And I swore that from now on, I would sleep with every prostitute. And I never met another one. As you can see, I don't put off the vibe. I don't have the sex vibe. You're good looking. People look at you and they want you. I'm old and short and bald and wear glasses that you don't know what it was like.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, nothing. And then I became so desperate and so lonely, I thought, I can't do this anymore. And I thought, what could I do? And I thought, I'll become an art critic. Now, at that point, I had never written a word in my life. I didn't read. I did nothing. I thought, oh, critics could get famous, sleep with women, and make a lot of money.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
None of those things are possible, being an art critic, at all. I was going to say. No. So I became an art critic, and I started writing absolute bullshit. And people seemed to like it. I would write, the late commodified object of post-structuralist capitalism finds its liminal space between interrogating nature and culture, blah, blah, blah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Yeah, and which you should never use. Anyway, so I started writing that way and slowly, I found my own voice. And at 41, I began working. So all of you listening to this, you haven't even begun yet. Get your acts together, you big babies. It's hard. No one said it's going to be easy. You have to work, work, work, work, work, and you have to show up. I'm afraid you can't be like me and hang back.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
I didn't hang back then. As much as I was unfit to hang out, I did it. Every night, you have to sacrifice it all. You have to meet other people like yourself. You can't be a vampire alone. You have to have a coven, or whatever those things are called, and have each other to, otherwise you think you know things other people don't know, and that's unlikely. You know nothing.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
And you just need to hang out, get to work, and work in your own voice. You have to make an enemy of envy. You cannot look out and have your eyes scanning the world and always be comparing yourself to others.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
PTFO - From Ronaldo to D-Wade: Athlete Statues, Reviewed by Pulitzer-Winning Art Critic Jerry Saltz
Well, I had... lit upon one giant project. I think in retrospect, it was to protect me from having to come up with a new idea every time out. I was going to illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy, all 100 cantos or chapters. I was going to do 100 works on each of the 100 cantos and And it would be a 25-year project. I know, I'm nuts. It would be a 25-year project. That's incredible.