Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor known for monumental works on history and memory, combining paint with straw, lead, and other materials.
Painter
Julian Schnabel
Julian Schnabel is an American Neo-Expressionist painter known for monumental works incorporating broken ceramic plates and unusual supports.
Julian Schnabel quick facts
Schnabel’s plate paintings combine oil with ceramic fragments on wood, while his velvet portraits make the textile itself part of the image.
| Full name | Julian Schnabel |
|---|---|
| Born | 1951 · Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | — |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Neo-Expressionism · late twentieth-century American figurative painting |
| Paint types | Oil paint |
| Other media | Sculpture · film directing |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Wood panels with painted ceramic fragments · Velvet fabric in Portrait of Andy Warhol (1982) |
| Painting methods | Painted gestural figures and symbols across plates fixed to wood with Bondo polyester filler; used rough texture and assembled materials to push paintings into three dimensions |
| Common subjects | Fragmented figures, heads and portraits, symbols, mythic narratives, cultural history, and references to art and music |
| Notable works | Bones and Trumpets Rubbing Against Each Other Towards Infinity (1981) · Portrait of Andy Warhol (1982) · Spain (1986) |
Sources: The Met: Bones and Trumpets..., Guggenheim Bilbao: Spain, Smithsonian Hirshhorn: Portrait of Andy Warhol, Guggenheim: Julian Schnabel biography.
Paint types used by Julian Schnabel
The documented paint types in Julian Schnabel’s work include Oil; examples below connect each medium to a specific work and clarify its role in the image.
-
Oil paint
The Met lists oil paint in Schnabel’s Bones and Trumpets Rubbing Against Each Other Towards Infinity (1981). The work’s broken ceramics, wax, plaster, and polyester filler are separate components, not all varieties of paint. Schnabel’s oil sits within a deliberately constructed, relief-like surface that challenges the flat picture plane.
Sources: The Met: Bones and Trumpets Rubbing Against Each Other Towards Infinity.; The Met: Ithaca; Detroit Institute of Arts: Cabalistic Painting
Painting surfaces used by Julian Schnabel
Records identify Julian Schnabel's use of wood and fabric, with named examples below showing how each support functions in the finished work.
-
Wood
Schnabel assembled wooden panels with broken ceramic pieces and polyester filler, creating fractured, relief-like supports for paintings. The uneven construction becomes visible beneath and between painted passages, making the panel part of the image’s physical structure rather than an unseen backing.
-
Fabric
Schnabel painted on velvet fabric in works such as his Portrait of Andy Warhol. The soft pile offers a support unlike his ceramic-covered wooden panels, giving the painted portrait a textile ground whose texture remains visible. The textile remains visible through the painted image.
Sources: The Met: Bones and Trumpets..., Guggenheim Bilbao: Spain, Smithsonian Hirshhorn: Portrait of Andy Warhol, Guggenheim: Julian Schnabel biography.
Painters similar to Julian Schnabel
Kiefer likewise pushed painted imagery into mixed-media relief, while Basquiat shared Schnabel’s 1980s New York art context through different imagery.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist whose paintings combine handwritten text, anatomy, crowns, cultural references, music, and history.