Customer Reviews

Julian Schnabel

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I bought this book because the is something intellectually exciting in Schnabel's work. Certainly we have something to learn about his paintings. Schnabel goes beyond all the rules we learned about what is and not is art, what can be and can not be done in art. This beautiful and well designed book has a hundred and more great reproductions of his paintings so we can follow his highly personal artistic output. There is some essays too that try, with some success, to shed a light on this unique artistic thought. I recommend specially the reading the texts by David Moos, David Moos & Bruce Fergunson, and David Salle. There is also a very good interview, produced by David Moos & Louise Neri, with the artist exposing his thoughts and beliefs on painting. We may agree or not with him, understand or not, but it's a way to get closer to this powerful art maker.

JULIAN SCHNABEL is a very large scale, hefty book about a hefty artist whose brilliance and contributions to the art world is equally as large - and important. Many people judged his early paintings that incorporated Melmac plates and shards as works that were thumbing his nose at the art world. But following the progress of this artist, that first impression could not have been further from the truth. From the gradual changes in his paintings and the growing sophistication of his exhibitions to the fine films he has created (Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Basquiat, Lou Reed's Berlin) to the current integration of photography and painting - all make strong statements both visually and philosophically.

Schnabel is never less than interesting, even to the toughest of critics. This very excellent book edited by David Moos (and Schnabel!), and with informative essays by Gian Enzo Sperone and Marco Voena covers the spectrum of Schnabel's life from his birth in 1951 to the present. Even the most devoted fan of his artistic output will be impressed with the photographs of exhibitions - with comments scrawled across the pages from Schnabel himself - and with the newest works, including the girls with no eyes series and the stunning Japanese paintings of wispy floating multifaceted figures suspended above an aqueous matrix.

Though there have been many books published about this amazingly gifted artist, few are as complete as this. The quality of reproductions and the depth of information would be difficult to match. A collector item in book form. Grady Harp, July 09