Schnabel, Julian

Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel burst on the neo-expressionist art scene of the early 1980s with huge, arresting paintings on collaged shards of smashed plates. A swaggering and contentious figure whose art no longer occupies center stage, he is probably best known today as a successful filmmaker. All the more reason, perhaps, for him to shore up his reputation by co-designing a mammoth book of his life and art. Julian Schnabel dispenses with commentary, except for the artist's own brief, broad-brushed introduction. Even the titles of his works are relegated to the illustrated index, which--despite Schnabel's proclivity for unconventional surfaces--omits any mention of media. Nearly 400 full-color reproductions trace Schnabel's output from 1976 to the present, interspersed with photographs of the artist, his family, and off-camera moments from the making of Before Night Falls, his film about the gay Cuban writer Reynaldo Arenas. Of course, all the famous Schnabel preoccupations are on full view, from the persistent references to Catholic ritual to the phallic imagery and the invocations of his wife Olantz. The newest mega-series, "Big Girl Paintings"--each face featuring a horizontal swipe of paint in lieu of eyes—-seems a hollow echo of the lively portraits of friends and family from the 1980s and 1990s. But die-hard Schnabel devotees will adore this lavish volume, which accompanies an international traveling exhibition that opens in January 2004 at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany. (U.S. venues have not been announced.) —Cathy Curtis

Julian Schnabel (b. 1951) is regarded throughout the world as one of the most important artists of our time. Yet, remarkably, there has never been-until now-a book that addresses the extraordinary range of his entire creative output. This lavishly produced volume presents many artworks that have never before been exhibited, published, or even seen, filling a major gap in the history of contemporary art.

More than 300 of Schnabel's works-paintings, photographs, sculptures, and film stills spanning a career of nearly 40 years-are reproduced here, along with texts drawn from the artist's interviews, essays, and notes. From the broken-plate paintings of the 1980s that brought him fame, to the recent, massively scaled Big Girls series, the artist's work is set in the context of his overall sensibility, becoming part of an ongoing pictorial diary of a life. Rather than a retrospective look at Schnabel's work, the book provides readers with a view of life and art as they collide. Julian Schnabel is certain to be welcomed as one of the season's most significant art publications.

Julian Schnabel: Olatz : The End of Summer : Hurricane Bob

Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel (b. 1951) is regarded throughout the world as one of the most important artists of our time. He burst onto the neo-expressionist art scene of the early 1980s with huge, arresting paintings on collaged shards of smashed plates, but is probably best known today as a successful filmmaker. His works combine oil painting and collage techniques, classical pictorial elements inspired by historical art, and neo-expressionist features. This volume provides a precise account of Julian Schnabel's artistic output over the last thirty years, describing the personality of a metamorphic and unpredictable artist and his bold, somewhat confrontational style reminiscent of the energy and daring of Picasso and Pollock. From the broken-plate paintings that brought him fame, to the recent, massively scaled Big Girls series, the artist's work is set in the context of his overall sensibility, becoming part of an ongoing pictorial diary of a life.

Berlin: A Performance by Lou Reed Directed by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel: Paintings 1978-2003 (Hatje Cantz)

Observers of contemporary art associate the name Julian Schnabel with highly evocative, large-scale paintings. At the time of his early exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe in the 80s, the larger-than-life Schnabel was loudly hailed as a new milestone in the development of painting, the savior of an art form declared dead years before. Still painting some of the most massive canvases around, Schnabel is a virtually unrivalled master in the use of "bigness" and a broad range of materials. Fragmentation and overlapping play an important role in his art, in terms of both material and content. If his paintings don't exhibit a consistent style, why should they? Instead, they combine oil painting and collage techniques, classical pictorial elements inspired by historical art, Neo-Expressionist features, as well as figuration and abstraction, gesture and structure. This volume presents a broad selection of Schnabel's paintings in a survey of his diverse oeuvre, with emphasis placed on works from 1990 to the present.

Julian Schnabel: Versions of Chuck

A selection of new works by the celebrated New York artist (and filmmaker, and designer) Julian Schnabel, surrounded by unusually riveting texts by art world luminaries Bonnie Clearwater, Fudi Ruchs and Georg Baselitz. The paintings, prints and sculptural works gathered here are large and expressionistic, expansive, searching and fearless. They are like the artist, according to this catalogue's foreword, "heroic yet human; innovative yet timeless absent of cynicism masquerading as irony." The central paintings are of a figure named Chuck, a surfer type who helped design and build Schnabel's studio complex in Montauk, Long Island. Angelic, perhaps homoerotic, slightly unfinished, they definitely stake out new terrain for this quintessential, and deserving, New York art star.

Julian Schnabel, October 31-29 November 1986

Julian Schnabel: Retrospectiva

Julian Schnabel: Works on Paper 1975-1988 (Art & Design)

Julian Schnabel: Portrait paintings ; excerpts from View of dawn in the tropics by Guillermo Cabrera Infante