If I had a video camera I would totally pull a Chris Crocker for Julian Schnabel. In his recent and amazing piece in The Brooklyn Rail, John Yau summed up pretty much everything I've ever thought about Julian Schnabel's painting (Not good. Not now. Not then.). And yet, I must say . . . Leave Julian alone.
Don't get me wrong. I think that Schnabel's paintings are, for the most part, shit. But I think he should keep making them. Leave the boy alone to do what he must do. Let him continue to give painters heart attacks when they see his work. Let him chase away the appetite of unsuspecting diners at Wallse. Let him play mayor of the far West Village. Give him his pajamas, his beautiful wife, his DPC-ready children. Encourage his Big Pink endeavors (Which I do love, by the way.). I don't care. Just leave the man alone with whatever damn ancillary activities he needs to rock if they lead him to create such gloriously great films as Basquiat, Before Night Falls, and he Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Seriously. Leave him alone. Use his illusion. Keep the balance right.
5 comments:
Damn your good...
a long while ago (maybe 7-10 yrs ago) a friend and I checked out a Schnabel show at the old Mary Boone on B'way.
They were *huge* paintings (think it was the series before his "renaissance" style figure paintings, also a series I thought was great). The paintings were large "abstract" paintings.
My friend said to me something like "I don't think they're very good. they just a jumble of brush strokes."
"Yeah, if you brush is two feet wide and the strokes are 10 feet long."
My friend then "got" the paintings.
Ha ha, Brent: did you know that you and Julian Schnabel's daughter share the same hairdresser?
Love,
Sheri
No. Fucking. Way. I'm gonna have to talk to him about that. Too much.
Post a Comment