Who Is Jerry Saltz? A Biographical Overview
If you’ve ever found yourself standing in a gallery, unsure of what to make of the giant canvas in front of you, chances are you’ve already met Jerry Saltz — at least through his words. One of the most recognizable and widely read names in contemporary art criticism, Jerry Saltz has spent decades turning what many consider an exclusive, intimidating world into something open, emotional, and deeply human.
Born on February 19, 1951, in Oak Park/River Forest, Illinois, Jerry Saltz grew up in the Chicago suburbs during a time when the art world was largely gatekept by critics and curators with lofty credentials. His early years were not without hardship — his mother died when he was just ten years old, a loss that would quietly shape the emotional depth and vulnerability that would later define his writing. Growing up near Chicago gave him early access to two institutions that would quietly fuel his artistic curiosity: the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History. These weren’t just museums to a young Saltz — they were windows into other worlds.
He went on to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1970 to 1975, where he studied painting and sculpture. By his own admission, Jerry Saltz was a “failed artist” who never quite broke through as a visual creator — and yet, it’s that very experience of failure and self-doubt that would make his voice as a critic so irresistibly relatable.
Today, Jerry Saltz lives in New York City with his wife, Roberta Smith, one of the most respected art critics in the country. The two married in 1992 and have built what many in the art world affectionately call a “dual-critic household” — a unique intellectual partnership between two of America’s sharpest art minds.
From Gallery Owner to Long-Haul Truck Driver: Jerry Saltz’s Early Career
Before Jerry Saltz became the name synonymous with accessible, honest art criticism, he lived a life that sounds more like a novel than a résumé. After art school, he dove headfirst into the Chicago art scene, practicing as a painter and eventually opening a gallery called N.A.M.E. He organized around 75 exhibitions there — no small feat — and even won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work was shown at the Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York, giving him early exposure to the city that would later become his home and the center of his critical voice.
But self-doubt has a way of derailing even the most promising careers. Saltz eventually abandoned art-making altogether, citing what he called “inner demons” — a brutally honest admission that he has revisited many times in his writing. Rather than pretending the transition was clean or easy, Saltz has always been transparent about the emotional toll of walking away from the identity of “artist.”
What came next is one of the more remarkable chapters in art world history: Jerry Saltz drove trucks. Long-haul trucks, to be exact. He also worked as a gallery assistant at the Phyllis Kind Gallery, quietly absorbing the rhythms of the art market and the language of visual culture from the inside. It was during this period that the seeds of his critical voice were planted — nurtured by experience, not just education.
Jerry Saltz’s Career as an Art Critic
The Village Voice Years (1998–2006)
When Jerry Saltz joined The Village Voice as a senior art critic in 1998, he brought something the art criticism world wasn’t entirely used to: a perspective that felt genuinely personal. Over nearly a decade, he wrote columns that were later collected in the book Seeing Out Loud: The Village Voice Art Columns, 1998–2003. His work during this period earned him two Pulitzer Prize finalist nods in Criticism, in 2001 and 2006 — a recognition that his writing was not only popular but genuinely significant.
New York Magazine and Vulture (2006–Present)
After leaving The Village Voice, Jerry Saltz moved to New York Magazine, where he has served as senior art critic ever since — and where his cultural influence has only continued to grow. His columns, published under the Vulture vertical, cover everything from major museum retrospectives to emerging artists, the art market, and the complex dynamics between collectors, curators, and creators. What makes Jerry Saltz’s art criticism at New York Magazine so distinctive is the way he writes: accessible, irreverent, and intensely personal. He doesn’t talk down to readers; he invites them into his thought process.
Other Publications and Contributions
Beyond his flagship roles, Jerry Saltz’s art writing has appeared in a wide range of respected publications. His bylines have graced Art in America, Frieze, Flash Art, Modern Painters, Parkett, and Time Out New York, among others. Each of these outlets gave him a different platform to reach different corners of the art world, and he used each one to champion the idea that art criticism doesn’t have to be stiff or academic to be brilliant.
The Critical Philosophy of Jerry Saltz: Art for Everyone
What truly sets Jerry Saltz apart from many of his peers is not just what he writes, but why he writes it. His approach to art criticism is fundamentally populist and democratic. He is often called “a critic of the people” — a label that, coming from the insular art world, is actually quite radical.
At the core of his philosophy is a desire to demystify the art world. For too long, contemporary art has been wrapped in the kind of language that makes regular people feel excluded. Saltz pushes back against that with every piece he writes. He emphasizes empathy, inclusivity, and the idea that art is deeply relevant to everyday life — not a luxury for the elite but a necessity for the human spirit.
He is also openly skeptical of critics who position themselves as arbiters of taste — those who decide what is good or bad without ever explaining why in terms that connect to lived experience. For Saltz, good criticism is honest, vulnerable, and written in one’s own voice. He values that honesty over polish, and his readers can feel it.
Awards and Recognition: Jerry Saltz in the Spotlight
Jerry Saltz’s career has been marked by a remarkable list of honors that underscore just how far his influence extends. The capstone of his career came in 2018, when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism — notably for his deeply personal essay “My Life as a Failed Artist.” It was a fitting win: a man who built his reputation on owning his failures was recognized at the highest level for doing exactly that.
Earlier in his career, the College Art Association awarded him the Frank Jewett Mather Award for Art Criticism in 2007. He has also received three honorary doctorates, including from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008 and the Kansas City Art Institute in 2011. In 2009, ArtReview’s Power 100 named him the 73rd most powerful person in the art world — a ranking that, while somewhat arbitrary, speaks to how deeply his voice had penetrated the upper echelons of the art establishment.
Jerry Saltz’s Books: From ‘Seeing Out Loud’ to ‘How to Be an Artist’
Jerry Saltz has turned his prolific critical voice into a body of published work that spans the full arc of his career.
His earliest collection, Beyond Boundaries: New York’s New Art, captures his early thinking about what was happening in the New York art scene. Seeing Out Loud (2003, reprinted 2007) brought together his best Village Voice columns, and its follow-up, Seeing Out Louder (2009), expanded on that foundation.
But it’s Jerry Saltz’s How to Be an Artist that has arguably reached the widest audience. Originally published as a viral New York Magazine cover story, it was expanded into a book that has sold approximately 400,000 print copies — a staggering number for a book about art criticism and creative practice. How to Be an Artist is a direct, funny, warm guide to living a creative life, drawing on Saltz’s own experiences as a failed painter turned celebrated critic. It’s the kind of book that doesn’t need a museum to live in — it belongs on bedside tables and kitchen counters.
Most recently, Art is Life was published by Penguin Random House in 2022, continuing his mission to bring art into everyday conversation.
Academic and Curatorial Work: Jerry Saltz Beyond the Page
Jerry Saltz has also left his mark on the art world as a curator and educator. His most significant institutional contribution came in 1995, when he served as the sole advisor for the Whitney Biennial — one of the most prestigious exhibitions in contemporary American art. It was a role that put him at the center of the conversation about what art mattered and why.
As a visiting critic, Saltz has taught and lectured at some of the most respected institutions in the country: the School of Visual Arts, Columbia University, Yale University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as the New York Studio Residency Program. His time in academic settings has allowed him to directly influence the next generation of artists and critics, extending his philosophy well beyond the page.
Jerry Saltz in the Media: Television, Social Media, and Public Life
Jerry Saltz has never been shy about stepping out from behind the critic’s desk. In 2010 and 2011, he served as a judge on Bravo’s reality series Work of Art: The Next Great Artist — a role that introduced him to a massive mainstream audience and sparked plenty of debate within the art world about the merits (and risks) of televising artistic competition. But Saltz engaged with it earnestly, and his presence on the show was a natural extension of his belief that art should be accessible and entertaining.
He has also made appearances on PBS and CNN, and has delivered talks at some of the world’s leading cultural institutions, including MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney Museum. More recently, he participated in the Prado Museum’s “Meet the Prado” series in 2025, bringing his accessible style to one of the great European art collections.
Perhaps most significantly for his reach in the modern era, Jerry Saltz has become one of the most active voices on social media in the art world. He has nearly one million Instagram followers and around 94,000 Facebook friends. He is often credited with pioneering art criticism via Facebook — using the platform in its early days to share thoughts, images, and conversations in real time. In 2015, he was briefly suspended from Facebook over provocative posts, an episode that only seemed to amplify his reputation as someone unwilling to self-censor for the sake of comfort.
Jerry Saltz and Refik Anadol
One of the more talked-about aspects of Jerry Saltz’s recent public criticism has been his outspoken commentary on the work of digital artist Refik Anadol. Saltz has been critical of Anadol’s large-scale AI-generated installations, arguing in his characteristically direct style that spectacle and technological novelty do not, on their own, constitute great art. The debate around Jerry Saltz and Refik Anadol has become a touchstone conversation in the broader discussion about whether AI-generated and data-driven art can achieve genuine emotional depth — or whether it is, at its core, decorative. It’s exactly the kind of argument Saltz relishes: one that forces the art world to interrogate its own values.
Personal Life: Jerry Saltz, Roberta Smith, and the Life Behind the Criticism
For all his public presence, Jerry Saltz is, at his core, a deeply private person in the ways that matter most. He is married to Roberta Smith, co-chief art critic for The New York Times, and together they form one of the most intellectually dynamic partnerships in American cultural life. It’s a “dual-critic household” that New York art insiders speak of with a mix of admiration and gentle awe. The couple has no children, and Saltz has spoken openly about how deeply his life is defined by writing and art.
His writing routine reflects this commitment. Saltz writes daily, often beginning early in the morning, approaching criticism with the same discipline he once tried to bring to painting. His personal essay style is unmistakable: it draws heavily on autobiography, vulnerability, and a willingness to revisit his own lived failures. For readers who have spent years with his columns, it can feel less like reading criticism and more like receiving a letter from a very perceptive, slightly neurotic friend who happens to know more about art than almost anyone alive.
Jerry Saltz Net Worth: What We Know
Questions about Jerry Saltz’s net worth are fairly common given his decades-long career and considerable cultural footprint. While Saltz has never publicly disclosed his finances, and no verified figures exist, it’s reasonable to note that as a longtime senior critic at a major publication, a bestselling author of How to Be an Artist, and a public intellectual with extensive media and speaking engagements, he has built a stable and respected professional career. His net worth, whatever the precise figure, reflects a life built on intellectual labor, consistent output, and genuine cultural impact rather than commercial art dealing or market speculation.
Jerry Saltz Contact: How to Reach Him
For those looking for Jerry Saltz contact information, the best and most direct route is through his active social media presence. He is highly reachable via Instagram, where he posts regularly and engages with followers, and through his Facebook page, which he has used for years as a platform for real-time art commentary and conversation. Professional inquiries are best directed through New York Magazine’s editorial channels. Given the volume of his public engagement, he is one of the more accessible major critics in the field — though reaching him for personal correspondence requires patience and persistence.
The Legacy of Jerry Saltz: Art Is for Everyone
In the story of American art criticism, Jerry Saltz occupies a singular position. He transformed a field that had long been characterized by inaccessibility and jargon into something warm, personal, and widely read. From his days as a truck driver to his Pulitzer Prize win, his career arc is not just inspiring — it is, in many ways, the embodiment of the very argument he has spent decades making: that art belongs to everyone, and that anyone willing to look and feel and think honestly has something valuable to contribute to the conversation.
His books, from the deeply personal How to Be an Artist to the expansive Art is Life, have reached audiences far beyond the gallery walls. His social media presence has democratized art discourse in ways that even his most optimistic supporters might not have predicted. And his criticism — blunt, empathetic, passionate — has given millions of people permission to engage with contemporary art on their own terms.
Jerry Saltz is not just an art critic. He is, in the truest sense, an advocate for the idea that seeing matters — and that everyone, regardless of background or education, deserves a guide willing to point the way.
Also Read: Kate Moss: The Iconic Supermodel Who Redefined Fashion Forever
