Julian Schnabel - Hardcover

Schnabel, Julian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810946335 ISBN 13: 9780810946330

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2003

Synopsis

A collection of more than three hundred definitive pieces, many previously unpublished, demonstrates the artist's range and is complemented by text drawn from interviews, essays, and notes that offer insight into his views about art and life. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

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

About the Author:

Julian Schnabel's paintings, sculptures, and works on paper have been the subject of major retrospective exhibitions here and abroad, and his art can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; Tate Gallery in London; and other key museums in Paris, Tokyo, and elsewhere. Schnabel is the writer/director of the feature films Basquiat (1996) and Before Night Falls (2001).

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0810946335
• ISBN 13: 9780810946330
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368