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Julian Schnabel | 
 enlarge | Author: Julian Schnabel
Category: Book
List Price: $75.00
Buy New: $54.83
You Save: $20.17 (27%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 1669398
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
ASIN: B000BZEOTW
Publication Date: October 31, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Julian Schnabel burst on the neo-expressionist art scene of the early 1980s with huge, arresting paintings on collaged shards of smashed plates. A swaggering and contentious figure whose art no longer occupies center stage, he is probably best known today as a successful filmmaker. All the more reason, perhaps, for him to shore up his reputation by co-designing a mammoth book of his life and art. Julian Schnabel dispenses with commentary, except for the artist's own brief, broad-brushed introduction. Even the titles of his works are relegated to the illustrated index, which--despite Schnabel's proclivity for unconventional surfaces--omits any mention of media. Nearly 400 full-color reproductions trace Schnabel's output from 1976 to the present, interspersed with photographs of the artist, his family, and off-camera moments from the making of Before Night Falls, his film about the gay Cuban writer Reynaldo Arenas. Of course, all the famous Schnabel preoccupations are on full view, from the persistent references to Catholic ritual to the phallic imagery and the invocations of his wife Olantz. The newest mega-series, "Big Girl Paintings"--each face featuring a horizontal swipe of paint in lieu of eyes—-seems a hollow echo of the lively portraits of friends and family from the 1980s and 1990s. But die-hard Schnabel devotees will adore this lavish volume, which accompanies an international traveling exhibition that opens in January 2004 at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany. (U.S. venues have not been announced.) —Cathy Curtis
Book Description
Julian Schnabel (b. 1951) is regarded throughout the world as one of the most important artists of our time. Yet, remarkably, there has never been-until now-a book that addresses the extraordinary range of his entire creative output. This lavishly produced volume presents many artworks that have never before been exhibited, published, or even seen, filling a major gap in the history of contemporary art. More than 300 of Schnabel's works-paintings, photographs, sculptures, and film stills spanning a career of nearly 40 years-are reproduced here, along with texts drawn from the artist's interviews, essays, and notes. From the broken-plate paintings of the 1980s that brought him fame, to the recent, massively scaled Big Girls series, the artist's work is set in the context of his overall sensibility, becoming part of an ongoing pictorial diary of a life. Rather than a retrospective look at Schnabel's work, the book provides readers with a view of life and art as they collide. Julian Schnabel is certain to be welcomed as one of the season's most significant art publications.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Don't buy this book (Sorry, Schnabel book people) October 2, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
So, I'm a professional art handler, artist, and closet art historian who has come into contact with my fair share of Schnabels. All I can say is his work can tend to be filed in the "total crap" column. Most of his stuff obviously took a hilariously small amount of effort on his part, considering he probably hasn't stretched his own canvases in twenty years. And squeezing some canvas pliers and grunting once every 6 months doesn't count.
I don't own this book, but I have perused its contents at one of Schnabel's galleries. Pretty much, if your work doesn't look better when put in the context of the "fancy-pants coffee table art book", then you're pretty much lost as an artist. And that's where I place Schnabel. His checkerboard and neon pink and green streaked 80's boat sailed long ago.
But, alas, he doesn't have to sulk in his studio while watching reruns of "Head of the Class". Instead, he's surrounded himself with an army of knowledgeless, subservient gallery owners who, in a desperate attempt to proclaim Julian Schnabel the Messiah of modern sensibilities, would go as far as to have him curate a show of even crappier work done by his brother-in-law. (No, seriously. Look it up.)
So he gets a hundred g's a painting, and we get to lower our standards.
 Must have Modern Art book October 16, 2005
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book is awesome. For fans of artists who work LARGE and loose. If you have noticed the reactions to this book are very polarized, people seem to either love or hate it. I love it and feel the haters just don't get modern art. There are so many colorplates you just keep turning pages impressed with the wide range and amount of work this artist has done.
The archetypal 80s artist: dull, mediocre, pretentious July 25, 2005
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
While Schnabel's latter day ressurection as a cinéaste (Basquiat, Antes que Anochezca) has proved he has a modicum of intelligence, his 'art' was just so much product for 80s New Yorkers - it has not a whit of imagination, irony, vision, truth, beauty - anhything, in fact, that might cause it to linger in the mind. Whatever their flaws (and they are legion) Koons and Serrano are Titans compared to this dross
the prince of kitsch June 20, 2005
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
if you have heard of Schnabel, the illustrations in this book will persuade you that it's best not to see his work.
Poor art by a poor artist May 8, 2004
18 out of 32 found this review helpful
The reason there exists no body of critical literature on Julian Schnabel is simply because his art is so blatantly uncompelling, mediocre, and self-seeking, that no one has bothered in the past three decades to waste time writing about it. Nor will you find any illuminating text here, either (one imagines there is really nothing much to say about paintings this bad anyway) -- just a few Rolling Stone-esque photos of the artist to prove his hipness . . . Painting is still cool, right?
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