JOHN SALT
RBSA Gallery
Birmingham
August 13th - August 25th
John Salt is the renowned Birmingham born painter who honed his reputation after decamping to the USA in 1967. There’s a rare opportunity to see a collection of John’s pioneering photoreal trailer parks, rusting muscle cars and the detritus that embodies the dark side of the American Dream, in an all too brief exhibition of his work, at the RBSA Gallery in his home town of Birmingham, until Sunday, August 25th.
“Old Cadillacs and Pontiacs, relics of the 1960s, are parked up deserted side streets on the edge of town while images of shabby trailer homes on the margins of the Interstate represent life at the bottom of the social ladder. Bathed in bright sunlight, they are poignant reminders of the transitory glamour of the culture of built-in obsolescence, but also reveal the artist’s deep affection for the American urban and rural landscape.” - RBSA Gallery
Although he worked from his own photographs after discovering a junkyard beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, a painting might take a year or more to complete.
John returned to live the UK in the late 70s, all the while continuing to compile American images as subjects, requiring frequent trips back to the US. "I think in a way it [America] has that removed quality I quite like, and also the light is much sharper, you get incredibly clear light, much harder, it's much softer in Britain, it doesn't quite have that edge – edge in every way, in light and subject matter." He told the Coventry Evening Telegraph in 2012.
Also on display are some of John’s early works, from his student days in Birmingham, providing a unique opportunity to witness the evolution of his work.
There is an introduction to the exhibition and a wider discussion about John Salt's incredible career, from curator and RBSA Professor of Art History, Brendan Flynn on Saturday, August 17th at 3pm.
It would be remiss of me not to mention John’s mention in Wayne Dean RIchards poem, A Fight in The Art Gallery, a personal favourite.
fight in an art gallery
we went to an exhibition by John Salt
because his pictures of cars
and no fucking people appealed to me.
there were no fucking people in
Salt’s paintings but
there were a few in the gallery.
up on the second floor was where
the fight broke out: two big men
wearing baseball caps and jeans
laid into each other.
nobody did a thing to stop it
which surprised me
till I realized they thought
it was a staged fight:
a piece of performance art.
“the guy with the blue cap
will win,” I said,
“the other guy’s too slow,
carries his hands too low.”
“everyone’s
a fucking critic,” my better half said
which shut me right up.
© Wayne Dean-Richards
Essential Information
Featured image: from top (possibly not all in the exhibition)
Main: John Salt, Three Toned Trailer, 1975
Black Ford in Field
Alburquerque Wreck Yard
JOHN SALT
RBSA Gallery
4 Brook Street
St. Paul’s Square
Birmingham
B3 1SA
Tuesday – Saturday 10.30am – 5.00pm, Sunday 11.00am – 4.00pm
Exhibition ends: Sunday 25 August 5.00pm
RBSA website here
More Wayne Dean Richards poetry here
