Viewing Room | Peter Saul. Wall Street Suicide, 2012

“The important thing is that a work has to look fresh, to be as original as possible. That means it has to have its own idea and psychology. I try to make it worth looking at, to turn it into a sensation. True or false doesn’t matter at all as long as it’s disturbing or funny, because I love all psychology. Bad things make me laugh just as often as good things. This has been my art style for over 55 years. I am open to any humor, except sophisticated humor. Too many good artists have sought after it. The secret of the success of a “bad” artist is in overcoming the need for approval.”

– Peter Saul

Saul’s works, rambunctious and full of lush images and poisonous morality, portray a new reality by removing the mask of hypocrisy and exposing human vices, in such a way that can change our perception of history and the generally accepted understanding of social norms. As the originator of Pop Art, Peter Saul embodied his ideas in an unprecedented style of painting that inspired a generation of American artists to new thinking and new creativity, which became the foundation of modern American culture.

Wall Street Suicide, 2012 by Peter Saul, detail © Gary Tatintsian Gallery and the artist

Each of Peter Saul's works is a mix of many cultural layers – in 'Wall Street Suicide' one of Edouard Manet's provocative works meets the surrealist figures of Francis Bacon and the iconic American image of "dead and alive" Frankenstein.

As described by Hollad Cotter, “Peter Saul… is a classic artist’s artist, one of our few important practicing history painters and a serial offender in violations of good taste. The influence of Mr. Saul’s paintings, with their cartoony figures, lurid-lush colors, splatter-film expressionism, and contrarian take on topical subjects, pervades recent art.” (Hollad Cotter, “Provocateur: The Peter Saul Manifesto”, The New York Times, 15 August 2008).

The bold use of colour and exaggerated, jarring aesthetic seen in the 'Wall Street Suicide' is a prime example of Saul’s painterly mastery and distinctively inquisitive work.