Julian Schnabel
Large Rose Painting (Near Van Gogh's Grave), 2015
Oil, plates, and bondo on wood
84h x 120w x 9 3/4d in
© Julian Schnabel Studio Photo by Tom Powel Imaging
An exhibition showing a new series of the celebrated “Plate Paintings” opened a few weeks ago at the gallery run by his son Vito. He is Julian Schnabel, the polymorphic artist allergic to generalizing definitions. Just like this interviewer, who touches on the salient points of a perennially transforming creativity. From painting to cinema, from the politics of fortunate meetings, the art and everything that happens between the observer and the viewed object.
On the 14th of February, an exhibition opened at your son’s gallery in St. Moritz. What is it about?
It is about six paintings representing roses and made of fragments of broken plates. They’re green, pink, white and black, about two meters high and one meter eighty wide. What makes them stand out is the fact that as soon as you step back from them, they assume a pictorial quality. Thanks to the use of the fragments and colors, it feels like they’re made of leaves and like you’re not looking at a painting, but at nature.