Julian Schnabel: Life in Polaroids
First exploding onto the New York art scene as the “enfant terrible” of the neo-expressionist movement of the 1980s, Julian Schnabel is now better known in some circles for his second career as an award-winning filmmaker. A new exhibition of Polaroid photographs from the director of the Oscar-nominated The Diving Bell and the Butterfly gives a very personal insight into the man behind the camera and the canvas.
Julian Schnabel has been a controversial art superstar for three decades, but there's no doubting the man's multi-disciplinary talents. On the subject of art creation, he has said, “Painting is like breathing to me. It’s what I do all the time. Every day I make art, whether it is painting, writing, or making a movie.”
Born in Brooklyn, but primarily raised in Texas, Schnabel graduated from the University of Houston with BFA in hand and applied to a program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York with slides of his work sandwiched between two pieces of bread. He was accepted.
When he exploded onto the New York scene in 1979, with large, dramatic, colour-filled canvases, he earned an instant following among the art-buying public. But along with the adulation came criticism for Schnabel's courting of attention away from his work; he was equally as famous for his eccentric personality and bohemian artist's uniform of pyjamas, slippers and robe as he was for his painting.
After writing an autobiography at the age of 35 about his early life, Schnabel's star as a painter began to fade in the 1990s, but the resourceful artist turned to a fresh medium – film – which he conquered with distinctive biopics that have been winning critical acclaim since his directorial debut in 1996.
In contrast to the vibrancy of his paintings, Schnabel's films, including Diving Bell (for which he won the top director's gong at Cannes Film Festival) are cinematographically sparse affairs, featuring subtle, powerful performances from their leading actors.
His latest film project has also been one of his most controversial; the big-screen adaptation of Rula Jebreal's novel Miral has led to a divisive response with audiences at this year's festival circuit, giving the movie mixed reviews and causing some Jewish organisations to speak out against the film's sympathetic take on the Middle East conflict through the eyes of a Palestinian woman.
This year has also introduced the world to Schnabel's latest artistic incarnation as a photographer with an exhibition of beautiful black, white and sepia portraits touring the world and an accompanying book also available. Using a 20x24 inch, 1970s handmade Polaroid camera, Schnabel initially began the photography process as a personal record, but over time he became more and more enthralled with what his cumbersome old camera was capable of.
“This camera works like photosynthesis. It is as if you were Xeroxing your own face,” he told The Guardian last month. “The pictures have such physicality: their surface is like fine leather, stained from chemicals. Each one has a body and is more than an image.”
As well as portraits of his family and patients in an insane asylum, there are also several revealing self-portraits and some much talked about photographs of friends – who happen to include Lou Reed, Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken and Placido Domingo.
When asked about the difference between photographing his family and celebrity friends, Schnabel said, “I know Lou, he lives across the street. He is like my family.”
Meanwhile, he adds, the photos of Rourke show another side of the hard-hitting actor. “He is vulnerable in real life,” Schnabel said. “He has this brash, tough-guy demeanour but he is soft… Mickey, Chris and Lou are all super-shy and pretty uncomfortable. These pictures happened almost by accident. They needed their pictures taken for some reason. And then it is all about trust – making pictures that are intimate.”
Julian Schnabel: Polaroids. Until 1 December. 18Gallery, 4F, 18 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, near Beijing Dong Lu. Tel: 6323 8099 x 3001. Web: www.magda-gallery.com
