In 1982, following on the exhibition A New Spirit in Painting (1981), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Boijmans van Beuningen hosted a series of solo exhibitions of young American painters. One of those was Julian Schnabel in 1982 at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The organizer of the exhibition, Adriaan van Grevesteijn said about Schnabel:

He uses elements he loves, that are his life. He paints everything, also the ugly, but heconsiders it beautiful. He approves of it wholeheartedly. He has so much faith in himself that he makes it for eternity—even though that is relative, in a material sense, sincehis paintings are very fragile, despite their massiveness.

For the interview during the exhibition's opening Schnabel asked the curator to speak on his behalf. In an attempt to show the constant between Schnabel's many styles of painting, the Van Grevesteijn explained:

He’s not just a nutcase. He likes extremes; with all his success, he is constantly reinventing himself. Most people knew only a few of his works: two abstracts in Boijmans VanBeuningen in Rotterdam, one here, and two at the Westkunst (West Coast Art) exhibition in Cologne last year, one of which was a plate painting. I wanted to show thatthey really were made by one and the same man. That’s why they have been classifiedgallery-by-gallery, with as many pointers as possible.

• Tineke Reijnders - “‘Mijn schilderijen zijn krankzinnig’: Julian Schnabels potscherven perstrekkende meter in het Stedelijk,” in De Groene Amsterdammer(February 17, 1982):

photo's from julianschnabel.com