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Vulture

45 mins | May 13, 2020

Jerry Saltz: My appetites

Eating and coping mechanisms, childhood and self-control, criticism, love, cancer, and pandemics. Spurred on by a shielded lockdown, Jerry Saltz reflects for Vulture on the impactful moments of his life that lead to his unorthodox culinary habits and to his unusual break into the world of art criticism — a heartfelt, moving listen about his life, becoming the person you are today and the inevitable passing of time. Jerry Saltz the American art critic — and senior art critic and columnist for New York magazine — was formerly the senior art critic for The Village Voice. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2018 and was nominated for the award in 2001 and 2006. "As I walked upstairs, the sound of my shoes on the steps made me remember that as we were heading out that morning, I’d heard my father running down these same stairs saying something about a 'relapse.' It terrified me. I made my way upstairs to my bedroom. I looked down from the third-floor landing and saw lots of old strangers in my living room. When they looked up at me, they all went silent. Like I was different. From that day forward, my mother was never mentioned again for the rest of my father’s life. Not once. All my memories of her except for the trip to the Art Institute — and one of her on that drive, saying, 'We might not see each other again' — vanished. That was that. There was no funeral, no memorial service, no nothing. I went to school the next day." This article was originally published in Vulture in May 2020.