Words On Paintings

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Writing on/in paintings is nothing new and you'd be surprised at how far back this practice goes. But it's become quite common these days, with many an artist putting words center stage in their work. Julian Schnabel was never shy about writing on his paintings. In fact, he was never too shy about anything. If I remember the story correctly, back in the day he was the darling of the art world and then fell out of favor, but making some critically acclaimed art movies resuscitated his career and now he's getting a second look at the painting he's continued to do all along. To make my point - ArtCritical gives one of his shows a bad review in '03 and then in 2005, does a good review of a different show and rethinks their position. He's most famous for his Plate Paintings, which are actually pretty cool. What prompted this post was seeing his work at Ace Gallery and remembering how some of his work really moves me.

Robilant & Voena have 85 images of his work, from 1995 through 2008, but this really doesn't totally represent him properly, so you'll want to do more researching before finalizing your opinion about this out-sized character and his meandering oeuvre.
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Image is from Galerie Hughie.
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