Made in America; Lorne Jackson Speaks to Birmingham Artist John Salt Who Realised His Ambition across the Atlantic

Byline: Lorne Jackson

oyd Grossman would be out of his depth, that's for sure.

LThe former Through The Keyhole host would never be able to guess "who lives in a house like this".

I don't think I'd have much of a clue either, if I didn't already know I was entering the home of the artist John Salt.

The reason Grossman would be bamboozled is that the beautiful farmhouse in the countryside near Ludlow is really not a John Saltish sort of location at all.

With the curvacious, Constable-shaped countryside wrapping the house in a loving embrace, it's all far too English. Salt is English, too, I should point out. A Brummie born-and-bred.

But his art comes from somewhere else. Somewhere vast and vital and very, very not England. To know John Salt through his work is to know America. He's the stars and stripes of a bright US morning, not the grumbles and gripes of an overcast UK afternoon.

Salt may have been raised and educated in his home country, but he only really found himself when he crossed the pond and stumbled across a bunch of derelict cars.

From the late 1960s onwards, he based himself in America, where he began a series of automobile paintings. The works are painstakingly rendered, as befits a pioneer and master of the photorealist school.

Sharp lines, crisp colours. The loving detail Salt sprinkles his work with contrasts dramatically with the subject matter. Discarded hunks …

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Publication information: Article title: Made in America; Lorne Jackson Speaks to Birmingham Artist John Salt Who Realised His Ambition across the Atlantic. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Birmingham Post (England). Publication date: April 28, 2011. Page number: 4. © 2009 Birmingham Post & Mail Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2011 Gale Group.

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