For Schnabel, a broken plate and a pixel are equivalent: scattered fragments that, once reassembled, don’t mend but instead highlight the fracture, forcing the viewer to enter, to be scratched, even unsettled. Raised between Houston and the Texas borderlands, steeped in popular religiosity and raw iconographies, Julian Schnabel (Brooklyn, 1951) returned to New York in the early ’70s to study in the Whitney Program. At a time when painting was declared dead, he opposed minimalism with plate paintings and unusual supports: broken porcelain, velvet, truck tarpaulins. In 1979, his first solo at Mary Boone Gallery consecrated him both antagonist and protagonist of the Neo-Expressionist scene. For some, he is the hero who restored primordial energy to painting; for others, a narcissistic showman staging himself. Yet it is in that very excess that his signature lies: silk pajamas worn as uniform, a palace – the Chupi – straight out of Disney fantasy, and films that narrate extreme lives with the same radicality as his canvases. From monumental paintings, where matter itself becomes story, to the cinema screen, a natural extension of his need to enlarge, amplify, and occupy space, Schnabel has made XL scale his native tongue, and the blurring of life and art his most enduring legacy.
Two eras, two worlds, one mystery. In the 14th century, Dante Alighieri seeks refuge in Sicily to finish his Comedy, tormented by elusive inspiration and a consuming fate. Seven centuries later in New York, a writer (Oscar Isaac) is asked to authenticate an ancient manuscript...
In his directorial debut, Schnabel portrays a fellow traveler: Jean-Michel Basquiat, enfant prodige of New York art who vanished too soon. The film follows his rise from graffiti to galleries, and his downfall marked by addiction. Warhol, played by David Bowie, appears as a shadow figure. Premiered in Competition at Venice, it established Schnabel as a storyteller of artists’ lives.
A second film, a second portrait: Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, persecuted for his homosexuality and political dissent. Javier Bardem delivers a masterful performance (Volpi Cup in Venice, Oscar nomination) in a story intertwining poetry, censorship, and resistance.
Schnabel’s peak of international acclaim: the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a journalist struck by locked-in syndrome, able to communicate only with one eye. Best Director at Cannes, two Golden Globes, and four Oscar nominations.
A concert documentary bringing Lou Reed’s live show in Berlin to the screen. A friend of the musician, Schnabel frames the raw energy of the performance without embellishment, in a work more intimate than celebratory.
Based on Rula Jebreal’s autobiographical novel, a political drama set in the Palestinian territories. It tells of the founding of a girls’ school and the intertwined lives of its students. Premiered in Venice, it won UNESCO and UNICEF awards, underscoring Schnabel’s interest in human rights
A return to the artist’s biography with the ultimate icon: Vincent van Gogh. The camera adopts the painter’s gaze, conveying chromatic vertigo and isolation. Willem Dafoe won the Volpi Cup in Venice and earned an Oscar nomination.
