Photo: Stéphane Aboudraram
Artist Julian Schnabel’s five-decade career has pivoted around using repurposed materials, from wax to velvet, as fresh surfaces; his most recent subversion is handling a paintbrush elongated by a stick. His work is currently on view in the south of France at the resplendent Château La Coste, which has 40 al fresco installations and sculptures scattered across the 500-acre site, plus five indoor galleries.
At Galerie des Ancien Chais is a sampling of nine monumental works drawn from across Schnabel’s career. A painting from 1975 is the earliest in the show; the use of a boxing ring floor for The Edge of Victory (1987) reflects how he was constantly flipping what can or should be used as an art surface. His most recent work is a Plate Painting that stars himself from 2023, showcasing a dapper hat, his signature glasses and a striped robe. The edit was chosen with curator Donatien Grau, head of contemporary programs at Musée du Louvre; the two worked together on a Musée d’Orsay show in 2018, “Orsay vu par Julian Schnabel,” in which the artist selected works from the prestigious collection alongside his own productions.