Trees of Home (for Peter Beard) 6, 2020
Oil, plates, bondo on wood
72 x 60 x 9 7/8 inches (182.9 x 152.4 x 25 cm)
© Julian Schnabel Studio; Photo by Tom Powel Imaging; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery
Julian Schnabel was a Montauk neighbor and longtime friend of Peter Beard, the acclaimed artist and photographer who died in April. “Julian Schnabel: Trees of Home (For Peter Beard),” which features six new plate paintings dedicated to Beard, will open Saturday at the Vito Schnabel Gallery in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and remain on view there through April 4.
The subject of the paintings is a walkway lined with trees in Saint-Remy-de-Provence in the south of France, captured in the many paintings and drawings made by Vincent van Gogh when he spent a year there. While writing and directing “At Eternity’s Gate,” his 2018 film about van Gogh, Mr. Schnabel formed a deep connection to van Gogh’s practice and created versions of van Gogh’s paintings to use as props in the film.