Julian Schnabel

Bouquet of Mistakes

Past
Sep 15 – Oct 28, 2023
New York

Exhibition Details:

Julian Schnabel
Bouquet of Mistakes
Sep 15 – Oct 28, 2023

Gallery:

540 West 25th Street
New York

Press:

Press Release

Connect:

(opens in a new window) @julianschnabelstudio
(opens in a new window) @pacegallery

Above: Installation view, Julian Schnabel: Bouquet of Mistakes, Sep 15 – Oct 28, 2023, Pace Gallery, New York © Julian Schnabel

Pace is pleased to present Bouquet of Mistakes, an exhibition of new velvet paintings by Julian Schnabel, at its 540 West 25th Street flagship in New York from September 15 to October 28.

The works on display in Schnabel’s upcoming show were made in concert with the preparation of his seventh feature film, In the Hand of Dante, an adaptation of Nick Tosches’s novel of the same name.

For the past 40 years, Schnabel has been on a quest to express the inexpressible. He began painting on velvet in 1980, and, in 1984, his velvet paintings were the subject of his first exhibition with Pace Gallery on 57th Street. For Schnabel, filmmaking and painting exist in a continuum in which subject matter crosses between mediums, assuming myriad forms. This relationship resonates throughout the exhibition, where indecipherable narratives emerge from a process of imagery central both to Schnabel’s film and to the paintings on view.

Celebrated for his vast and experimental practice that extends into the realms of sculpture and filmmaking, the artist has always been a painter first and foremost. Since 1978, when he created the first plate painting, The Patients and the Doctors—a work which abandoned traditional canvas in favor of a surface composed of broken plates—his use of unconventional, found materials has led to the invention of entirely new modes of painting. Dispensing with traditional distinctions between abstraction and figuration, Schnabel’s plate paintings, and his works on velvet, reinvigorated interest in painting as a medium for contemporary art. Moreover, in the early years of his practice, Schnabel decided to make paintings that incorporated the history and materiality of the medium itself, embracing a singular approach to both form and subject.

Schnabel’s forthcoming exhibition in New York will mark his twenty-second solo presentation with Pace. With these new velvet paintings, Schnabel considers the ways that the material appears as subject matter throughout the history of art—particularly in the works of Titian, Goya, and other Old Masters—and its symbolic weight in the history of humanity itself. But rather than creating illusionistic depictions of velvet, the artist uses the material for the surfaces of his works, inventing a new, contemporary kind of history painting in the process.

Among Schnabel’s recent velvet works in the exhibition is the ten-panel Buñuel Awake (for Jean-Claude Carrière) or Bouquet of Mistakes (2022), a large-scale composition that evokes the grandeur of retablos, architecturally scaled paintings that loom behind the altars of Renaissance and Baroque churches across southern Europe. Also included in this body of new works is Gesù Deriso. Jesus Mocked (2023), which refers directly to an enigmatic Renaissance fresco by the Dominican monk Fra Angelico in the famous monastery of San Marco in Florence.

Concurrently with his exhibition at Pace in New York, Schnabel is showing in the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID through September 24.

Featured Works

The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress III by Julian Schnabel — Julian Schnabel, *The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress III*, 2023, oil, bleach on velvet in artist's frame, 97-1/4" × 79-1/8" × 2-1/2" (247 cm × 201 cm × 6.4 cm)

The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress I by Julian Schnabel — Julian Schnabel, *The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress I*, 2023, oil, bleach on velvet in artist's frame, 97-3/8" × 79-1/8" × 2-1/2" (247.3 cm × 201 cm × 6.4 cm)

The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress VII by Julian Schnabel — Julian Schnabel, *The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress VII*, 2023, oil, bleach on velvet in artist's frame, 97-1/16" × 79-1/16" × 2-1/2" (246.5 cm × 200.8 cm × 6.4 cm)

The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress IV by Julian Schnabel — Julian Schnabel, *The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress IV*, 2023, oil, bleach on velvet in artist's frame, 97-3/8" × 79-3/16" × 2-1/2" (247.3 cm × 201.1 cm × 6.4 cm)

The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress VI by Julian Schnabel — Julian Schnabel, *The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress VI*, 2023, oil, bleach on velvet in artist's frame, 97-1/8" × 79-1/8" × 2-1/2" (246.7 cm × 201 cm × 6.4 cm)

The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress V by Julian Schnabel — Julian Schnabel, *The Nine Skies and the Mountain Fortress V*, 2023, oil, bleach on velvet in artist's frame, 97-3/8" × 79-3/16" × 2-1/2" (247.3 cm × 201.1 cm × 6.4 cm)

Installation Views

About the Artist

Julian Schnabel is known for his multidisciplinary body of work that extends beyond painting to include sculpture, film, architecture, and design. His use of preexisting materials not traditionally used in artmaking, varied painting surfaces, and unconventional modes of construction were pivotal in the reemergence of painting in the United States, positioning him as a vanguard among artists of his generation.

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