Art is life

Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists, and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary readers to fine art as few critics have. An early champion of forgotten and overlooked women artists, he has also celebrated the pioneering work of African American, LGBTQ+, and other long-marginalised creators. Sotheby’s Institute of Art has called him, simply, ‘the art critic’. Now, in this book, Jerry Saltz draws on two decades of work to offer a real-time survey of contemporary art as a barometer of our times. Chronicling a period punctuated by dramatic turning points – from the cultural reset of 9/11 to the rolling social crises of today – Saltz traces how visionary artists have both documented and challenged the culture.