Julian Schnabel, "Fox Farm Painting IX," 1989 © Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Fox Farm Painting IX, 1989, oil and gesso on velvet, 120" x 180" (304.8 cm x 457.2 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Julian Schnabel

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b. 1951, Brooklyn, New York

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Emerging from the late 1970s as one of the most consequential artists of his generation, Julian Schnabel has radically expanded the possibilities of painting through the use of unconventional surfaces, proving pivotal to the reemergence of painting in the United States.

A vanguard of his era, Schnabel’s practice extends beyond painting to include sculpture, film, architecture, and design. Appropriating media and referents from past and present, Schnabel has sustained an innovative practice for over fifty years, never restricting himself to an established style.

Schnabel’s engagement with art began in childhood as a form of escapism—a formative relationship between creative expression and freedom that later materialized in his culling from the expanse of visual culture. His family relocated from Brooklyn to Brownsville, Texas, in 1965, when he was fourteen. By the end of the decade, Schnabel had traveled to San Francisco before returning to Texas to study at the University of Houston, where he received his BFA (1969–73). During this period, Schnabel participated in his first group exhibition, Hidden Houston, at the University of St. Thomas, Houston (1971), and was accepted into the independent study program at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1973–74). The program culminated in a group exhibition at the museum, and just two years later his first solo exhibition was held at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1976).

Julian Schnabel, The Patients and the Doctors, 1978

Julian Schnabel, The Patients and the Doctors, 1978, oil, plates and Bondo on wood, 96" × 108" (2.44 m × 2.74 m) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Citing an early interest in the writing of Antonin Artaud and the work of Joseph Beuys, Cy Twombly, and Brice Marden, Schnabel considered the psychological weight of his materials as accumulations of information through which emotion could be conveyed. In the mid- to late-70s, his paintings were largely characterized by a vocabulary of symbols—crosses, shields, cypress trees, branches, cracks, and torsos—rendered on densely textured, earth-toned grounds. Engaging the physicality of surface, these works were made with wax, modeling paste, and impasto, often punctured or interrupted by architectural elements that create tension between background and foreground.

Julian Schnabel, Bones and Trumpets Rubbing Up Against Each Other Towards Infinity

Julian Schnabel, Bones and Trumpets Rubbing Against Each Other Towards Infinity, 1981, oil, wax, Mexican pots and plaster on wood, 108" × 156" (2.74 m × 3.96 m). Collection Metropolitan Museum of Art © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Schnabel’s breakthrough came with his first “Plate Painting,” The Patients and the Doctors (1978), produced in New York after returning from his travels throughout Europe. Inspired by Antoni Gaudí’s mosaics in Barcelona, Schnabel imagined covering the wood panels of his hotel room armoire with broken plates. Replacing the aggression of his earlier brushstrokes, shards of dishware embedded in painted wood panel project outward, forming a jagged and fractured topography overlaid with painted imagery.

Untitled by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Untitled, 2017, gesso on found fabric, 288" × 288" (731.5 cm × 731.5 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Install of Symbols of Actual Life by Julian Schnabel

Installation view, Julian Schnabel: Symbols of Actual Life, Apr 21 – Aug 5, 2018, Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Schnabel joined Mary Boone Gallery, New York, in 1978 and mounted a solo exhibition the following year. He soon began exhibiting his work in Europe with Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich. By the end of 1982, he had presented major solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Basel (1981), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1982), and The Tate Gallery, London (1982). In 1984, he began a twenty-year affiliation with Pace Gallery.

Throughout the ’80s, Schnabel’s practice shifted from Plate Paintings and portraits to pictorial narratives and text-based works, while exploring new methods of applying paint—using brooms, for example—and with supports including velvet grounds, polyester, linoleum, rugs, kabuki theater backdrops, and monumental tarpaulins. He also expanded his practice to include large-scale sculpture.

Portrait of Andy Warhol by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Portrait of Andy Warhol, 1982, oil on velvet, 108" × 120" (274 cm × 305 cm). Collection: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ethnic Type #14 by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Ethnic Type #14, 1984, oil, animal hide and modeling paste on brown velvet, 108" × 120" (274 cm × 305 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Drawing inspiration from French New Wave, Italian Neo-Realism, and classic Hollywood cinema, Schnabel turned to filmmaking in the ’90s. He made his directorial debut with the feature-length classic Basquiat (1996), based on the life of Jean-Michel Basquiat, followed by Before Night Falls (2000), about Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas. In 2007, he released the Lou Reed concert film Berlin, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir. The latter garnered four Academy Award nominations and earned Schnabel Best Director awards at both the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Globes. His 2010 film, Miral, won the UNICEF and UNESCO awards at the Venice Film Festival. Most recently, Schnabel directed At Eternity’s Gate (2018) and In the Hand of Dante (2025), the latter of which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 2025. The same year, he received the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the Venice International Film Festival. Across painting and film alike, Schnabel constructs layered compositions in which fragments of image, memory, and emotion coalesce into expansive narrative fields.

Second of the Two Fridas by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Second of the Two Fridas, 2024-2025, oil, plates and bondo on aluminum, 60" × 48" (152.4 cm × 121.9 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Trees of Home (for Peter Beard) 2 by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Trees of Home (for Peter Beard) 2, 2020, oil, plates and bondo on wood, 72" × 60" (182.9 cm × 152.4 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Schnabel has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions and several major retrospectives. Among them, Paintings 1975–1986 opened at Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, in 1986 and traveled to Musée national d’Art Moderne de Paris; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Selected solo exhibitions have been held at the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2016); The Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut (2017); Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (2018); Aros Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark (2018); The Brant Foundation, New York (2021); Böhm Chapel, Hürth, Germany (2021–22); Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg, Germany (2022–23); Fondation Linda en Guy Pieters, Saint-Tropez, France (2023); and Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York (2024). In 2018, the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, hosted a solo show of Schnabel’s work and invited him to curate a selection of works from their collection. His work has been featured in hundreds of group presentations, including the Venice Biennale (1980, 1982, 1997, 2003); the Whitney Biennial (1981, 1983, 1987, 1991), and Carnegie International (1985, 1989), among others. He was invited as the guest of honor at the São Paulo Biennale in 1994 and was elected an Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 2009. He received the LongHouse Award from East Hampton’s LongHouse Reserve in 2019 for his contributions to the arts.

Rebirth III (The Red Box) by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Rebirth III (The Red Box), Painted After the Death of Joseph Beuys, 1986, oil, tempera on Kabuki theatre backdrop, 148" × 134" (375.9 cm × 340.4 cm.). Collection Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Wind by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, The Wind, 1985, oil, spray enamel, modeling paste on canvas, 166" × 217" (421.6 cm × 551.2 cm). Collection of The Art Institute of Chicago © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view of Paintings 1975–1987 by Julian Schnabel

Installation view, Julian Schnabel: Paintings 1975–1987, Nov 5, 1987 – Jan 10, 1988, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Schnabel’s work is held in more than fifty public collections worldwide, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Kunsthalle Basel; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate, London; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongbuk, South Korea.

Julian Schnabel has been represented by Pace since 2016, following an earlier period of representation from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s.

Buñuel Awake (for Jean-Claude Carrière) or Bouquet of Mistakes by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Buñuel Awake (for Jean-Claude Carrière) or Bouquet of Mistakes, 2022, oil, spray paint, molding paste, gesso on velvet, 168" × 330" × 1-1/2" (426.7 cm × 838.2 cm × 3.8 cm). Collection Los Angeles County Museum of Art © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view of Bouquet of Mistakes by Julian Schnabel

Installation view, Julian Schnabel: Bouquet of Mistakes, Sep 15 – Oct 28, 2023, Pace Gallery, New York © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Self-Portrait as a Blind Swordsman Searching for Louise by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Self-Portrait as a Blind Swordsman Searching for Louise, 2017, oil and latex paint on bronze with patina, stainless steel inner structure, 183-1/2" × 106-1/2" × 78" (466.1 cm × 270.5 cm × 198.1 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

ESMÉ by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, ESMÉ, 2020, cast silicon bronze with stainless steel structure, 191" × 168" × 55" (485.1 cm × 426.7 cm × 139.7 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Big Girl Painting by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Big Girl Painting, 2013, oil on canvas, 144" × 132" (365.8 cm × 335.3 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

May by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, May, 2017, inkjet print and oil on polyester, 88" × 68" (223.5 cm × 172.7 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Preschool and Afterschool by Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel, Preschool and Afterschool, 2018, oil and gesso on found fabric, 128" × 213-1/2" (325.1 cm × 542.3 cm) © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view of Schnabel and Spain: Anything Can Be a Model for a Painting

Installation view, Schnabel and Spain: Anything Can Be a Model for a Painting, Apr 8 – Jun 12, 2022, CAC MÁLAGA, Malaga © 2026 Julian Schnabel / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York