Julian Schnabel, Large Girl With No Eyes, 2001, Oil and wax on canvas, 162 x 148 inches (411.5 x 376 cm); © Julian Schnabel Photo by Tom Powel Imaging
Everyone in the art world has preconceived notions about Julian Schnabel. He has lived many lives since his rise in the New York art scene in the 1980s with the reputation of an artist bad boy. But the art speaks for itself. His gigantic smashed-plate paintings, inspired by the mosaic benches of Antoni Gaudí, feel as radical today as when he unveiled the first one in 1978.
In the nearly five decades since, Schnabel has painted a stream of masterworks on velvet and tarp—all while honing an illustrious film career. Schnabel is a Cannes Film Festival and Golden Globes Best Director, as well as an Academy Award nominee. In the art world, he injected a dose of frenetic maximalism into a minimalism-saturated milieu. In Hollywood, he’s told the stories of tragic geniuses like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas. Beneath all of it lies a relentless drive to create.