Saltz quotes Hockney
Jerry Saltz amplified a David Hockney line — “There’s much too much abstract painting being done now” — sparking debate online about saturation versus craft in abstraction. The short thread has already drawn hundreds of views and reopened the old argument about value and novelty in abstract painting. (x.com)
Jerry Saltz posted the short thread on X under status ID 2037499546004042199; the post links to David Hockney’s recent interviews and has registered hundreds of views since it went up. (x.com — ) (x.com) Hockney made the remark during publicity around his Serpentine show, speaking to Andrew Marr for The Sunday Times on March 21, 2026 as the exhibition opened in London. (hockney.com — ) (hockney.com) The Serpentine presentation, titled "A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting," runs from March 12 to August 23, 2026 and includes a monumental frieze that has been described as roughly 295 feet (about 90 metres) long. (serpentinegalleries.org — ) (serpentinegalleries.org) (smithsonianmag.com — ) (smithsonianmag.com) Coverage of Hockney’s comments has framed them as part of press around the Serpentine opening rather than a novel theoretical intervention, with outlets noting he mixes figurative and abstract modes in the new works on view. (artnews.com — ) (artnews.com) Commentators and gallery critics responding to the exchange have pointed to the continuing prominence of abstraction across major fairs and galleries as evidence that the style remains commercially and institutionally robust. (artegenerali.com — ) (artegenerali.com) Saltz’s amplification arrives amid a history of high-profile online spats and loudly framed pronouncements—he has previously clashed publicly with artists and commentators and won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. (artnet.com / public coverage of past online exchanges — ) (news.artnet.com) (wikipedia.org — ) (en.wikipedia.org)
