Biography:

Julian Schnabel (Born: October 26, 1951) is an Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe winning Jewish American artist and filmmaker born in Brooklyn, New York City.

Early life and education:

Born in Brooklyn, New York City to immigrants Esta and Jack Schnabel. Schnabel moved with his family to Brownsville, Texas when still young. Although he was Jewish, he attended a Marist Brothers Catholic school there. It was in Brownsville that he spent most of his formative years and where he took up surfing and resolved to be an artist.

He received his B.F.A. at the University of Houston. After graduating, he sent an application to the independent study program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. His application included slides of his work sandwiched between two pieces of bread; he was promptly accepted. Struggling in the art world, Schnabel worked as a short-order cook and frequented Max's Kansas City, a restaurant-nightclub, while he worked on his art. In 1975, Schnabel had his first solo show at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. Over the next few years he traveled frequently to Europe, where he was enormously impressed by the work of Antoni Gaudi, Cy Twombly and Joseph Beuys.

Art:

It was with his first solo show, at the Mary Boone Gallery in 1979, however, that Schnabel would truly come to be regarded as a major new force in the art world. He participated at the Venice Biennale in 1980 and by the mid-1980s had become a major figure in the Neo-expressionism movement. By the time he exhibited his work in a show jointly organized by Boone and Leo Castelli in 1981, he had become firmly established. His now famous "plate paintings", large-scale paintings set on broken ceramic plates, brought on a boisterous and critical response from the art world. But what was beyond doubt was the vibrancy that Schnabel brought to the art scene. Using Kabuki theatrical sets, velvet and animal hides, his bold, somewhat confrontational style recalled the energy and daring of Picasso and Pollock.

Schnabel's signature works contain an underlying edge of brutality while still being suffused with energy. Schnabel claims that he's "aiming at an emotional state, a state that people can literally walk into and be engulfed."

His works are in the collections of various museums throughout the world, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; The Whitney Museum of American Art; The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles; Reina Sofia and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Directing:

In addition to his work as an artist, Schnabel has written and directed three films: Basquiat, a biopic on the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat (1996), Before Night Falls (2000), an adaptation of Reinaldo Arenas' autobiographical novel, which he also produced, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), an adaptation of a French memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Schnabel won the award for best director at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival as well as a Golden Globe for best director. He is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and an Academy Award in the category of best director.

Writing and recording:

Schnabel published his autobiography CVJ: Nicknames of Maitre D's & Other Excerpts From Life, in 1987 and released the album "Every Silverlining Has a Cloud" on Island Records [Catalog #314-524 111-2] in 1995. Recorded in Brooklyn, NY in 1993, the album features guest musicians including Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell, Buckethead, and Nicky Skopelitis.

Personal life:

Schnabel lives in New York, maintaining studios in New York City and in Montauk on the eastern end of Long Island with a house in San Sebastian in Spain. He has three children by his first wife, clothing designer Jacqueline Beaurang: a son, Vito an art dealer, and two daughters, Lola a painter and film-maker, Stella, a poet and actress. He also has twin sons, Cy and Olmo, by his second wife, Spanish Basque actress and model Olatz López Garmendia. Garmendia appeared in Before Night Falls, and is also to be seen in The Diving Bell, as Bauby's physical therapist. Schnabel is fluent in Spanish.

Filmography:

• Basquiat (1996)
• Before Night Falls (2000)
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)