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Julian Schnabel
Julian Schnabel (b. 1951) is regarded throughout the world as one of the most important artists of our time. He burst onto the neo-expressionist art scene of the early 1980s with huge, arresting paintings on collaged shards of smashed plates, but is probably best known today as a successful filmmaker. His works combine oil painting and collage techniques, classical pictorial elements inspired by historical art, and neo-expressionist features. This volume provides a precise account of Julian Schnabel's artistic output over the last thirty years, describing the personality of a metamorphic and unpredictable artist and his bold, somewhat confrontational style reminiscent of the energy and daring of Picasso and Pollock. From the broken-plate paintings that brought him fame, to the recent, massively scaled Big Girls series, the artist's work is set in the context of his overall sensibility, becoming part of an ongoing pictorial diary of a life.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published October 7, 2008
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July 29, 2009
A Monograph in Keeping with a Prodigious Artist's Gifts
JULIAN SCHNABEL is a very large scale, hefty book about a hefty artist whose brilliance and contributions to the art world is equally as large - and important. Many people judged his early paintings that incorporated Melmac plates and shards as works that were thumbing his nose at the art world. But following the progress of this artist, that first impression could not have been further from the truth. From the gradual changes in his paintings and the growing sophistication of his exhibitions to the fine films he has created (Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Basquiat, Lou Reed's Berlin) to the current integration of photography and painting - all make strong statements both visually and philosophically.
Schnabel is never less than interesting, even to the toughest of critics. This very excellent book edited by David Moos (and Schnabel!), and with informative essays by Gian Enzo Sperone and Marco Voena covers the spectrum of Schnabel's life from his birth in 1951 to the present. Even the most devoted fan of his artistic output will be impressed with the photographs of exhibitions - with comments scrawled across the pages from Schnabel himself - and with the newest works, including the girls with no eyes series and the stunning Japanese paintings of wispy floating multifaceted figures suspended above an aqueous matrix.
Though there have been many books published about this amazingly gifted artist, few are as complete as this. The quality of reproductions and the depth of information would be difficult to match. A collector item in book form.
Grady Harp
JULIAN SCHNABEL is a very large scale, hefty book about a hefty artist whose brilliance and contributions to the art world is equally as large - and important. Many people judged his early paintings that incorporated Melmac plates and shards as works that were thumbing his nose at the art world. But following the progress of this artist, that first impression could not have been further from the truth. From the gradual changes in his paintings and the growing sophistication of his exhibitions to the fine films he has created (Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Basquiat, Lou Reed's Berlin) to the current integration of photography and painting - all make strong statements both visually and philosophically.
Schnabel is never less than interesting, even to the toughest of critics. This very excellent book edited by David Moos (and Schnabel!), and with informative essays by Gian Enzo Sperone and Marco Voena covers the spectrum of Schnabel's life from his birth in 1951 to the present. Even the most devoted fan of his artistic output will be impressed with the photographs of exhibitions - with comments scrawled across the pages from Schnabel himself - and with the newest works, including the girls with no eyes series and the stunning Japanese paintings of wispy floating multifaceted figures suspended above an aqueous matrix.
Though there have been many books published about this amazingly gifted artist, few are as complete as this. The quality of reproductions and the depth of information would be difficult to match. A collector item in book form.
Grady Harp
Displaying 1 of 1 review