Julian Schnabel: “I Painted My Way into a Lot of Trouble”

“I painted my way into a lot of trouble,” says Julian Schnabel, “and I painted my way out of it.” The artist, now 74, rose to fame in New York’s art scene in the 1980s. His plate paintings, an ongoing series where shards of broken crockery are placed onto canvases and overlaid with painted imagery, made him a distinguishable figure in an art world then dominated by the flat planes of minimalism. Schnabel was disruptive. His work was challenging. He had an impulse to take things and flip them on their head. It is an energy Schnabel still has today, as an artist and also a filmmaker. A series of Schnabel’s works are now on display at Chateau La Coste – some new, others old, together they showcase this enduring energy.