David Salle

For our latest episode of “Under the Influence,” Artforum sits down with painter and longtime contributor David Salle, who reflects on the importance of his childhood teacher Betty Dickerson, his relationship to midcentury abstraction, the enduring allure of Manet’s Olympia, his collaborations with choreographer Karole Armitage, and what aliens might learn about humans from Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita. “Influence implies understanding,” he argues, “and I think the understanding has been in short supply.”