Gus Van Sant
Untitled (Hollywood 1), 2018
Watercolor on linen
84 x 66 inches (213.4 x 167.6 cm)
© Gus Van Sant Photo by Argenis Apolinario Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery
Add Gus Van Sant, the Palme d’Or-winning auteur behind films such as My Own Private Idaho (1991), Good Will Hunting (1997), and Milk (2008), to the long—and growing—list of Hollywood celebrities who are crossing over into visual art.
Art, however, is not just a passing hobby for Van Sant: he has been making paintings since he first studied the medium at the Rhode Island School of Design in the early 1970s. Now, he is getting his first solo show in New York in September. The show, “Recent Paintings, Hollywood Boulevard” at Vito Schnabel Gallery, brings together around a dozen dreamy, watercolor-on-linen works Van Sant created in his LA studio over the past two years.
“It’s like walking through both Gus’s life and imagination,” Schnabel tells artnet News. “He put it all into a painting. Like his films and photographs, this is just how Gus sees the world.”