Julian Schnabel

C&M Arts, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2005

Julian Schnabel, C.V.J.: Nicknames of Maitre D's & Other Excerpts from Life, New York, 1987, p. 94, illustrated in color
New York, C&M Arts, Julian Schnabel: Selected Paintings, April - June 2005

This work is in very good condition overall. The adhered elements appear to be secure and stable. The plates are chipped in spots, which is inherent to the artist's working method. There are scattered dust accretions in the crevices of the affixed elements. Unframed.
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Impressive in scope and commanding in scale, Self Portrait by a Red Window is an immensely important example of Julian Schnabel’s iconic Plate series, in which shattered pieces of tableware become a key element of the composition. Created in 1982 – by which time the young artist had achieved an astonishing level of international acclaim – Self Portrait by a Red Window displays Schnabel’s bravura technique to remarkable effect. Fragments of variously patterned plates sweep magnificently across the wood support, over-painted with extraordinary skill to create a powerfully expressive self-portrait alongside a night-darkened window. Formed by means of throwing plates at the canvas ground, a method which recalls Jackson Pollock’s energetic application of washes of paint on canvas, there is a sense of barely suppressed violence in this unabashed evidence of destruction. Yet Schnabel has shaped a work of astounding power from the porcelain remnants, resulting in a painting that is undoubtedly one of the most significant within the artist’s early oeuvre. Schnabel later recalled his aims behind the creation of the Plate paintings: “When I did the plate paintings I wanted to break the surface of the painting and I liked the dissonance between the brightness of the plates and the other parts of the picture.” (cited in Exh. Cat., Derneburg, Schloss Derneburg, Julian Schnabel: Versions of Chuck & Other Works, 2007, p. 195)

The artist made his first Plate works in 1978, having been inspired by his extensive travels around Europe on several occasions between 1976 and 1978. In Italy, masterpieces of different eras provided particular inspiration, with the work of Fra Angelico, Giotto and Caravaggio acting as key stimuli for Schnabel’s painting, whilst the influence of Renaissance portraiture is revealed within Self Portrait by a Red Window in the foreground positioning of the figure and the powerful, brooding gaze which irresistibly demands the attention of the viewer. Reflecting on the impact these major works of the past had on him, Schnabel declared that: “I have felt a kind of affinity and an interest in old Italian painting… There is a level of synaesthesia where all the different senses are mixed together that gives you an experience that I’m interested in finding in my own paintings.” (cited in Ibid., p. 195) This concept of ‘synaesthesia’ – a condition in which the different senses become co-mingled to intriguing effect – is brilliantly epitomised by the remarkable texture of Self Portrait by a Red Window, in which the eye is almost overwhelmed by the sheer wealth of differing surface layers. This opulence of texture was partially inspired by Schnabel’s visit to Spain, during which the intensely decorative architecture of Antonio Gaudỉ exerted a lasting impression on the young painter.

The influence of mosaic is also clearly discernible within the Plate series: Schnabel superbly re-interprets this ancient technique through the humorously innovative application of ceramic and porcelain fragments to a canvas or wood ground. Max Hollein argues that it is the ‘shattered’ quality of works such as Self Portrait by a Red Window that infuses them with such power: “The fragmentary quality of these paintings… imbues Schnabel’s paintings with an inherently enigmatic, enchanted quality… We respond to these fragments of a commonplace product with an entirely new set of expectations and immediately begin to look for the inherent historical quality, the act that preceded their final existence as shards.” (Max Hollein in ‘The Works and Their Viewers,’ in: Exh. Cat., Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Julian Schnabel – Paintings 1978-2003, 2004, pp. 39-40) Ultimately Self Portrait by a Red Window is a true masterpiece of the Plate series: a tour-de-force of painterly skill which magnificently displays Schnabel’s astonishing technical virtuosity and dazzling creative power.