Business Man No. 2, Peter Saul

Archive Label 2009: Statements by the artist frrom Peter Saul, exhibition catalogue, Northern Illinois University, 1980: “I hope my pictures actually do have a psychological or social meaning that is visually evident, and I’m not just kidding myself (it’s a nightmare that I suddenly look at my work and nothing’s there but the plumbing, line, form, color, etc.). Just to be on the safe side, I’m going to state, right here, my work does have a psychological and social meaning. It’s on purpose though not very clearly thought out.” “One of the best qualities of ‘violence and gore’ is the way it repels the ‘elite group.’ The phrase ‘elite group’ doesn’t just mean art collectors. I include artists, students, intellectuals - anyone who needs to feel superior in intelligence, sensitivity, and education. I love tearing into that with the energy of a housewife destroying bathroom germs. It’s the intellectual dignity of modern art that upsets me, excites me to paint as I do.” “Pictures have one distinct advantage over all the other media: the artist can do it all by himself without any sort of cooperation from galleries, museums, governments. Your can just but the art supplies and do it without getting permission from anyone.” “My contribution to art is probably one desperate ideas of how to attract attention, if there is no other: violence, sex, exaggeration, politics and Dayglo add up to a list of things deliberately not done by artists who know better. As a singular individual, accidentally beyond the periphery of the art world, I couldn’t have done anything else and expect to noticed. All the delicate and refined ideas of what to do - stripes, emptiness, golden blushes and piles of bricks - only work in making careers for people in the right place with the right social connections. So what are you supposed to do if you’re not part of the ‘in-crowd’? Anything you want to, of course!” “It surprises me that 90 percent of artists explore 10 percent of the artistic possibilities with ever greater profundity. You’d think they would gasp for breath.” “I always do thing the wrong way, which is completely empty territory.”