JULIAN SCHNABEL (Brooklyn, New York, 1951).
"Chulos", from the series "Las Pintura del Rastro", 1993.
Mixed media and collage on canvas.
Provenance: Soledad Lorenzo Art Gallery, Madrid (1994).
Work exhibited in “Julian Schnabel. Paintings from the winter of 1993 for Olatz ”, Soledad Lorenzo Gallery. Madrid, November 17-December 16, 1993, rep. p.11.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 214 x 153 cm; 244 x 184 cm (frame).
Pimps, snake charmers, knife sharpeners, murderers, prostitutes or street vendors are some of the characters that star in Julian Schnabel's series "The Rastro Paintings". With a practice close to expressionism, Schnabel's technique promotes objet trouvé and processes based on chance, approaching sculpture on numerous occasions and exploring new fields such as architecture or furniture. Award-winning film director (three of his films "Basquiat", "Before Night Falls" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" have led him to be awarded at Cannes as best director and to be decorated or nominated at the Golden Globes, at the BAFTA, the César and the Venice International Film Festival), Julian Schnabel made his artistic breakthrough with his "plate paintings", fragments of plates, assembled and polychromed, which he created after contemplating Gaudí's mosaics in Barcelona's Park Güell. His boldness, his energetic conception of art and the novelty of his techniques and decorations make him a transgressive figure in the art world, not exempt from controversy and eccentricity. Currently, his work is part of the collections of several museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid or the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among many others, as well as important private collections.