David Salle Trains AI on Artistic Principles for New Exhibition

David Salle explores how artists can use AI as a tool to reconfigure pictorial space with the malleability of pure imagination. He trained a machine learning system by feeding it images from artists like Edward Hopper, Giorgio de Chirico, and Arthur Dove to teach formal concepts like brushstrokes, edges, and composition. Salle emphasizes that AI is not an author but an amalgamator that can break pictures apart and recombine components while preserving emotional subtext. His approach builds on historical artistic innovations, from oil paint and canvas to photography and silkscreen, which were once radical but are now standard tools. Salle's new work, inspired by a 19th-century opera backdrop he painted 25 years ago, transforms pastoral scenes into hard-edged, high-key color harmonies. The exhibition runs from 10 April to 8 June at Thaddaeus Ropac in London. This article appears in the April 2025 issue of ArtReview.