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[SHOWS] Julian Schnabel @ Pace Gallery, New York

APRIL 16, 2020 

Photograph: Pace Gallery website
 

The Patch of Blue the Prisoner Calls the Sky
March 6 – April 18, 2020
540 West 25th Street New York

An essay by James Nares, titled The Patch of Blue the Prisoner Calls the Sky, will accompany the exhibition. These works catalogue the possibilities of how and what to paint, revealing a new way of looking at the world that blurs the line between representation and configuration. As Nares explains, “These paintings represent the evidence of their own autonomy. They are metaphoric in an open way, not to interpretation as image but as underlying principles and facets of nature.” Weather-beaten fabrics provide a temporal point of departure. “Julian is drawn to surfaces and objects that show their own history—scuffed-up cardboard, the discarded sails of sailing ships, Kabuki theater backdrops…he thinks of them as ‘opportunities’—calls them ‘veils of time.’” 

Painted with marks Nares refers to as “a kind of mapping of the mind,” the works evoke volcanoes, rock formations, ocean waves, deserts, outer space, all rendered in emotive indigo blues, blood reds, pale pinks and olive greens– eternity. Once a utilitarian object, the fabric ground contains traces of its past life and the perfection of the coincidental opening a window into both our world and one imagined in dense paint. “The paintings are full of dynamic surprises….Small fire, a prism, and a window-like opening in a place with no wall, blue sky beyond…”

Photograph: Pace Gallery website
 
Julian Schnabel (born in Brooklyn, New York, 1951, raised in Brownsville, Texas) has always been a revolutionary voice in painting and all his other creative endeavors. His use of preexisting materials not traditionally used in artmaking, varied painting surfaces, and unconventional modes of construction were pivotal in the reemergence of painting in the United States and beyond since the late 1970s. He invented a new language within painting that paved the way for and influenced a new generation of artists.

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Pace is a leading contemporary art gallery representing many of the most significant international artists and estates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Under the leadership of President and CEO Marc Glimcher, Pace is a vital force within the art world and plays a critical role in shaping the history, creation, and engagement with modern and contemporary art. Since its founding by Arne Glimcher in 1960, Pace has developed a distinguished legacy for vibrant and dedicated relationships with renowned artists. As the gallery approaches the start of its seventh decade, Pace’s mission continues to be inspired by a drive to support the world’s most influential and innovative artists and to share their visionary work with people around the world.

Pace advances this mission through its global program, comprising ambitious exhibitions, artist projects, public installations, institutional collaborations, performances and interdisciplinary projects through Pace Live, and curatorial research and writing. Today, Pace has seven locations worldwide: two galleries in New York—including its newly opened headquarters at 540 West 25th Street, and an adjacent 8,000 sq. ft. exhibition space at 510 West 25th Street—as well as galleries in Palo Alto, London, Geneva, Hong Kong, and Seoul. 

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