JULIAN SCHNABEL (Brooklyn, New York, 1951). "Chulos",... Lot 135

JULIAN SCHNABEL (Brooklyn, New York, 1951). "Chulos", from the series "The Rastro Paintings", 1993. Mixed media and collage on canvas. Provenance: Soledad Lorenzo Art Gallery, Madrid (1994). Later private collection in Barcelona. Work exhibited in "Julian Schnabel. Winter 1993 paintings for Olatz", Soledad Lorenzo Gallery. Madrid, 17 November-16 December 1993, rep. p.11. Signed and dated. Sizes: 214 x 153 cm; 244 x 184 cm (frame). Pimps, snake charmers, knife sharpeners, assassins, prostitutes and peddlers are some of the characters that feature in Julian Schnabel's series "The Rastro Paintings". With a practice close to expressionism, Schnabel's technique encourages objet trouvé and processes based on chance, on numerous occasions approaching sculpture and exploring new fields such as architecture or furniture. An award-winning film director (three of his films, "Basquiat", "Before Night Falls" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" have won him awards at Cannes as best director, and he has been decorated or nominated at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, The César Awards and the Venice International Film Festival), Julian Schnabel made his artistic breakthrough with his "plate paintings", fragments of plates, assembled and polychromed, which he created after contemplating Gaudí's mosaics in Barcelona's Park Güell. His boldness, his energetic conception of art and the novelty of his techniques and decorations made him a transgressive figure in the art world, not exempt from controversy and eccentricity. His work currently forms part of the collections of several museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among many others, as well as important private collections.