[줄리안 슈나벨 전시] Schnabel talks about life through paintings this time

For some, Julian Schnabel may be best known as the director of the movies "Before Night Falls" or "The Diving Bell and The Butterfly."

The two films, nominated for and winning many top awards, including the Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globes and Oscars, definitely placed Schnabel in the limelight.

The director, however, actually started out as a painter and now, at age 58, is one of the most influential artists of his generation.

"He will always answer that he is a painter first and foremost. He first started his career with paintings, and his films also come out of paintings," said Mary Dinaburg, curator of Fortune Cookie Projects, a group which introduces major works of the west and the east to each other.

"We even see that he revitalized the paintings with his plate paintings. Now everyone takes it for granted but it was him who allowed younger painters to do it," Dinaburg added.

With Fortune Cookie Projects as its associate, Watergate Gallery in Nonhyun-dong is hosting the exhibition "Julian Schnabel - Retrospective Print Exhibition" which looks back at Schnabel's artistic side during the last 25 years. This is Schnabel's first show in Korea.

The exhibition showcases the renowned American artist's 39 pieces of etching, acquaint, lithography and screen-painting.

He is well-known for his experimental use of various materials, including ones not usually considered material for art, Dinaburg said.

One such example is velvet.

"These are the last ones left in the world. This exhibition might be the last chance to see them before they are all sold out," Dinaburg said, pointing to Schnabel's "Landscape" hung on the wall.

Some assume from Schnabel's experimental but immaculate works that he must be fastidious and rather difficult to get along with. But Dinaburg said that he is the opposite.

"He is the easiest person I've worked with. He simply wants everything to be done well, that's all. If you know his art, you will know what I mean. His works are very humane, all about the basic essential values of life like love, birth, death and humanity," she said.

Schnabel's exhibition runs through July 10 at Watergate Gallery in Nonhyun-dong, southern Seoul. For more information, call (02) 540 3213 or visit www.changart.com

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young