Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Portraits, Nemo Librizzi

1998

Julian Schnabel is a painter and filmmaker known as an integral member of the American Neo-Expressionists along with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Eric Fischl. Schnabel’s application of paint on massive canvases, use of unconventional materials such as broken plates and representation of human figures are hallmarks of his most famous paintings and prints. 

“My paintings take up room, they make a stand. People will always react to that,” Schnabel said of his work. “Some people get inspired, others get offended. But, that's good. I like that.” 

Born on October 26, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York, Schnabel participated in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in the late 1970s, after his public persona grew. The artist turned to feature-filmmaking in the 1990s with his film Basquiat (1996), an intimate fictionalized account of the life of his late friend. 

Schnabel went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for Before Night Falls (2000) at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Director Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007). He currently lives and works between New York City and Montauk, New York. The artist’s works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others.

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(Biography provided by Lot 180)