m.simons is proud to present an exhibition of work by Julian Schnabel. The artist, whose work gained massive recognition in the eighties as the American answer to the German neo expressionist style of Georg Baselitz and A.R. Penck, worked together with Lococo Fine Art in St. Louis, to produce the works presented in the gallery.
Central to the exhibition is a series from 1995, Last Attempt at Attracting Butterflies, numbered I to IV. Each work in the series has a distinctive backdrop of a red/pink to white gradient. As inspiration for the background, Schnabel both referenced Japanese graphic design as well as Farewell my Concubine, the Chinese film starring Leslie Cheung that came out in 1993. The artist transposed the gradients in tones of light pink to bright reds onto large sheets of museum board, leaving a strip of paper bare all around the gradient. Over both the gradient and its bare paper frame, wild brushes of intense, thick black ink were laid.
In addition to the series of 4, m.simons is presenting another edition from the same year. Otoño Floral stems from a body of work that was inspired by Schnabel’s then-wife Olatz López Garmendia. The print is testament to Schnabel’s unique approach to printmaking; instead of having everything printed directly, he demonstrated the printmakers how to apply the green paint on the paper with a rag. After that, the screen print was printed over in 18 colors, which finally was overlaid with strokes of clear resin.
Julian Schnabel, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1954, is an American painter and filmmaker. He garnered worldwide attention with his “plate-paintings” in the 1980’s. While continuing his painterly career, Schnabel started directing films, such as Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and most recently the Van Gogh biopic At Eternity’s Gate, starring Willem Dafoe. Recent solo exhibitions include Julian Schnabel and Italy, Robilant + Voena, Milan, 2023, Bouquet of Mistakes, Pace Gallery, New York, 2023 and Julian Schnabel, Max Hetzler Gallery, Berlin, 2021.
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