Julian Schnabel "New Plate Paintings" at PACE GALLERY

James Kalm first laid eyes on the work of Julian Schnabel in early 1979. Since then, he has followed Julian’s career with great interest, not to mention envy. Over this nearly forty year period, the trends and fashions of the art world have changed and even repeated, and the reputation of Schnabel has been like a barometer of taste. With “New Plate Paintings” the artists has returned to a mode of work (the broken crockery) that did much to establish his bad boy credentials. Based on roses seen near the grave of Vincent van Gogh, these lush pictures nonetheless contain the brutal facture and chunky surface that disrupted the conformist art world of late 1970s color field, and minimal abstraction. It’s not unexpected that Schnabel is also currently working on a film about van Gogh and that these paintings are a supplementation of that project. This program was recorded February 23, 2017.