There’s a lot of destruction and failure at the door of a successful picture. I find joy in sorrow. And sorrow is greater than laughter. You know, an angel is not far from those who are sad, and illness can sometimes heal us.
Happy Birthday to American artist Julian Schnabel, born on this day in 1951!
Julian Schnabel first painted on velvet in 1982 because he liked the way the images floated on the surface of the pile. Such nontraditional material was not unusual for the artist, who had already become known for his paintings on broken crockery and who would later work on truck tarpaulins. Velvet, ranging in its associations from opera-house curtains to kitsch, is especially fitting for a portrait of artist Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987), who wore black velvet jackets and sponsored the 1960s rock band The Velvet Underground. Schnabel’s depiction of the bare-torsoed Warhol alludes to the portraits of Warhol made by painter Alice Neel and photographer Richard Avedon soon after Warhol was shot and critically wounded in his studio in 1968.
The two artists admired each other’s work, Schnabel gave this portrait to Warhol, and in return received several portraits that Warhol had done of him. This painting remained part of Warhol’s collection until his death.
“A painter’s job is to invent new ways that form can be looked at, to organize things in a way so that people notice things they didn’t before.” - Julian Schnabel in conversation with Daniel Blau, Paris 1991
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