Untitled

Literature

Julian Schnabel was born in 1951 in Brooklyn, New York, to a father of Czechoslovakian descent and a mother from New York. After graduating from the University of Houston with a BFA, he began his artistic career in New York City. He was provided an artist’s studio through the Whitney Independent Study Program. He moved to Houston, Texas for a year, where he created his “first adult painting”, composed of oil, wax, and paste shaped on a canvas. This was the beginining of his signature artistic style, using pre-existing and unconventional materials to create his art.

His first solo exhibition was at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas, in 1976. He moved back to New York City working as a cook, then spent time traveling in Europe, where he was fascinated by Caravaggio and Fra Angelico; these influences led lead to Schnabel’s creation of ten wax paintings in Milan. After another trip to Europe a few years later, he was inspired to create his now-famous plate paintings. The plate paintings incoporated smashed plates and later glass and porcelain adhered onto a canvas, painting on top of them and thereby mixing objects with flat surfaces. Schnabel’s paintings often use unconventional materials, like velvet or putty. His work is featured in various US and intermational museums and galleries in New York City, including Switzerland, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Munich, and more.

In 1990, Schnabel directed and wrote his first film, Basquiat, a biopic following the life of friend and fellow artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. He continued to create other films such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, At Eternity’s Gate, Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait, and Miral, which was featured at the United Nations and won the UNESCO and UNICEF awards at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. Schnabel is a filmaker and a painter – he is an artist who expresses himself via different tools, be it a camera or a paintbursh.

This untitled piece captivates the eye through the use of a bold red color, layered with a more subtle orange and light green. The canvas background is incorporated into the painting’s composition, highlighting the artist’s use of mixed media.