David Salle: belief

Transcript context

…How are artists different as collectors? You have a collection of your own, right? Yes. I do find artists collect more from an informational standpoint. The artist owes nothing to the art world vis-à-vis their collection. The artist isn’t making a statement about the world in their collection, nor is the artist judged by their collection. Their collection is really a private matter. It’s more like a library. I know, for example, my friend Jeff Koons collects Courbet paintings, which I would do if I could afford them. I think that’s great. He doesn’t collect art like his own. He collects art very, very different from his own. I collect things that are very different from what I make, and I don’t actually live with my work in the house. The way in which an artist uses another artist’s work is sometimes very eccentric and hard to trace, or hard to see at first. I think artists’ collections have more to do with wanting to be reminded about something, wanting to be nudged by something, wanting to have something as a touchstone. Sometimes it has the spiritual component of a Buddhist scholar’s rock or something of the sort. Sometimes it’s something relatively insignificant, but it’s a reminder or a link to a whole other world, another experience. Why is it that Frank O’Hara has been so important to both you and Alex Katz? Alex painted Frank, as you probably know, right?…

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