Julian Schnabel
Born – New York City, USA 1951
Julian Schnabel trained at the University of Texas during 1969 to 1972 and started exhibiting in 1976. He is best known for working on a monumental scale, with inventive, bravura approach to painting and skill for self-promotion and marketing. A celebrity on the New York gallery scene in the late 1980s, his work is appropriately theatrical. In a bid to challenge previous limits set on painting he redefined the term Action Painting, stretching it to incorporate an essentially physical approach to creating an image. He moved away from gesture to concentrate on surface, treating the thick support of the painting without reverence. In 1979 he began plastering broken crockery over tactile paint, making the surface appear fragmented and restless. These works, such as Humanity Asleep, are literally volatile, and are already causes for concern to the conservators of collections where they are held. As a complement to these he also made large-scale paintings on velvet. Schnabel created monolithic, isolated imagery bearing disparate reference to Classicism, mythology and history, in addition to association with love, romance and optimism. Ultimately, his work exudes his love for the act of painting itself.
Masterpieces:
- Owl
- Self Portrait in Andy’s Shadow
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Books About julian schnabel
Julian Schnabel
Buy on Amazon
Julian Schnabel: Permanently Becoming and the Architecture of Seeing
Sir Norman Rosenthal
Buy on Amazon
Julian Schnabel: Art and Film
Julian Schnabel
Buy on Amazon