Happy Birthday, Jerry Saltz! | Insta of the Week

February 19 is my Birthday. I am 65 today. *The Origin of the World; Holy Wound, c. before 1349. Misty cloud of destiny. 

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on Feb 17, 2016 at 9:04pm PST

New York Magazine Senior Art Critic, and perpetual "man about town" Jerry Saltz always has something to say about everything from emerging net artists to medieval torture porn. Today he turns 65, marking the occasion on his controversial Instagram page with a totally cosmic cosmic 700-year-old painting of a vagina. Does that make it a 700-year-old vagina? We couldn't not circulate it this week.

"We all have second selves," Saltz said late last year, explaining his Instagram in a talk at the 92nd Street Y. "My second self is this wild character on Instagram who I love watching. It takes me three seconds to find these images, between paragraphs. I'm writing hysterically, I get a little too much tension—and I might just have a thought, like 'beheadings, medieval,' and I hit images. One image leads me to another and I see a great image, I put it on with a ridiculous caption because I'm nervous, and next thing I know I'm in the Land of Like. And so happy. And it lasts five or seven minutes and then there's so many other pictures that nobody ever sees it again. And it's like your genius is gone, and I love that… But art it is not, it is what ever it is."

Below, we've highlighted some of his most loved and loathed posts from 2015. Consider this a petition for another 65 years before he's allowed to retire.

Holy fuck!‼️ Trump = Golden Mean & Fibonacci‼️

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on Dec 19, 2015 at 10:24am PST

Martin Creed at Gavin Brown Gallery. Miracle of red. #Balloons

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on Dec 13, 2015 at 5:31pm PST

Last night at Art Basel Miami Beach. Never get off the boat. #ABMB (ht @maricmarianne ) #ApocalypseBasel (Please caption??)

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on Dec 5, 2015 at 4:41am PST

Happy Thanksgiving! I fucking <3 NY!

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on Nov 26, 2015 at 8:23am PST

It got kind of cold in London this evening after #friezeartfair so we put our long johns on. A lot of stuff under the bridge here babes. (h/t @jackwatteau ) picture by @fili_papinho.

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on Oct 14, 2015 at 8:01pm PDT

With Charles Ray's epic depiction of devotion, damage, original sin: " Huck and Jim." Art Inst Chgo. Sadly the 1 the Whitney turned down.

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on Sep 19, 2015 at 11:50am PDT

#InternationalWomensDay Bae

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on Mar 9, 2015 at 4:52pm PDT

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on Mar 9, 2015 at 9:04am PDT

Yo. If you need anymore reasons to dis or dig me: Go to New York Magazine on-line. Read my (too long) conversation: "How and Why We Started Taking Kim Kardashian Seriously (and What She Teaches Us About the State of Criticism)" I swear. #KimKardashian

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on May 20, 2015 at 12:15pm PDT

How sexually sick are conservatives and Fox News? They blurred parts of the Picasso painting. #DepravedRightWingBusyBodies

A photo posted by Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) on May 13, 2015 at 3:32pm PDT

See more on Jerry Saltz's Instagram.

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