Julian Schnabel - Contemporary Art London Thursday, June 21, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich; Private collection, New York

  • Catalogue Essay

    After his first solo show in 1979 at the Mary Boone Gallery, Julian Schnabel became to be regarded as a major new force in the art world and later on, a leading figure in the movement that came to be known as “neo-expressionism”. Schnabel’s work, often displaying highly visual, emotionally stirring content brought a newfound sense of vibrancy to the art scene after decades of cool minimalism and conceptual art had almost entirely eclipsed painting. The raw, passionate energy of his visual narratives garnered public acclaim and critical disdain which transformed Schnabel and his work into a hype and controversial stardom never before seen in the art world. As one observer puts it, Schnabel was "dealt with more as a phenomenon than as a painter", so that the hype surrounding the artist--often self-generated--- superseded the importance of the work. The present lot encompasses the full spectrum of Schabel’s bold, confrontational style, with his use of bright colors and complex layers of iconography and meaning. His assimilation of figuration and abstraction, brutality and energy satisfy Schnabel’s claim that through his work he is “aiming at an emotional state, a state that people can literally walk into and be engulfed”.

27

Untitled, 1987

Acrylic on tarpaulin.
92 x 74 in. (233.7 x 188 cm).

Estimate
£50,000 - 70,000 

Sold for £57,600

Contemporary Art

22 June 2007, 4pm & 5pm
London