“In the hallowed halls of art criticism long dominated by self-serious arbiters of taste, Saltz will sometimes say he prefers to play the role of the hapless naïf. Saltz can look the part when he wants: he’s a petite man, with a receding hairline, bookish plastic frames, and a face that resembles a hybrid of J.K. Simmons and Larry David’s. But his boundary-pushing antics are serious business, a persona built over 25 years of hard work and self-questioning, and they’ve put him in a uniquely influential position in the New York art scene.”