Painter, curator, decorator, sculptor, singer, photographer, film director - is there anything Julian Schnabel cannot master?
He would immodestly say no. He has proved to be a force of nature, with prodigious energy, output and ego. Three decades since the rave reviews for his first New York exhibition, his latest film, Miral, a beautiful, painterly tale of the Palestinian struggle, is about to be shown at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.
It has been a remarkable journey for Schnabel, born in Brooklyn in 1951; the son of Jewish parents, Esta and Jack Schnabel, an émigré from Czechoslovakia, who became a meat worker. The family - Julian had an older brother and a sister - moved to Brownville, Texas. After studying art at the University of Houston, he successfully applied for a place in a study programme at New York's Whitney Museum by presenting slides of his work between two slices of bread. Houston's Contemporary Arts Museum hosted his first major solo exhibition in 1979, and he travelled to Europe, where the work of the Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi, and the German pedagogue, Joseph Beuys, had a profound impact on his career.
Working as a cook in downtown New York, he continued to paint, and in early 1979 the dealer Mary Boone hosted a one-man show of his work. Collectors were so taken with it that a second show followed in November of that year. At that exhibition he unleashed his broken plate work - huge landscapes of paint over fractured pottery glued to vast canvasses. It proved a sensation. Charles Saatchi became a Schnabel champion. His paintings would sell for millions. He then smashed and splashed his way through the New York scene - invariably clad in silk pyjamas. His work was soon classified as "neo-expressionist" and he became a symbol of the heedless 1980s.
The - surely inevitable - critical backlash came as early as 1982, when his most trenchant, and vivid, critic, Time magazine's Robert Hughes, pronounced, "Schnabel's work is tailor-made to look important. It is all about capital letters, Life, Death, the Zeitgeist, and above all the tragic though profitable condition of being a Great Artist. It is big, and stuffed with clunky references to other Great Art, from Caravaggio to Joseph Beuys. Its imagery is callow and solemn, a Macy's parade of expressionist bric-a-brac: skulls, bullfights, crucifixes, severed heads." Mr Hughes saw the broken saucer as "the severed ear of the '80s"; while Schnabel was the "Stallone of painting", "the dealers' Pollock of the '80s - "the surrogate Moby Dick who will make the art world look deep. 'Ahoy! Hast seen the Great White Male?' "
Mr Hughes regarded this role as unplayable; yet Schnabel would say it was one he could quite comfortably fill. After all, he famously said, "I'm the closest you'll get to Picasso in this life." He may have been wounded by the attack but - at the age of 35 - impudently published his memoirs, CVJ. His reputation may have suffered, but in May 2008 his 1989 diptych The Valerio III fetched $517,000 at a Christie's auction.
Other enthusiasms consumed him, too. As a sculptor, in the late 1980s and 1990 he produced massively physical pieces of darkly patinaed bronze and aged wood. According to The New York Times's Ken Johnson, they looked as though "they have been exhumed from an ancient, long forgotten schismatic church". And in 1995 he even recorded an album, Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud, which critics praised for its charming directness, noting a lighter Leonard Cohen, a less cynical Lou Reed with a slightly less tuneful Johnny Cash.
There was said to be a cinematic theme to Schnabel's painting, and so his entering the world of celluloid should not have been a surprise. He saw an inextricable link between the two media, but all the clunky, restless braggadocio he exhibited as an artist seemed to dissolve as he took his place behind a camera. There is a simplicity, a gentleness and sensitivity in his films that is missing on his canvasses.
In 1996 he wrote and directed Basquiat, a biopic of the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. His sad, erotic film, Before Night Falls, followed in 2000. Drawing on the memoirs of the lyrical Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, it featured an extraordinary performance by Javier Bardem. Then, in 2007, came The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on the autobiography of a former Elle editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was stricken by a stroke and able to move nothing but one eyelid. Bauby dictated his book by blinking, and it was published days before his death in 1996. Schnabel also drew heavily on his own experience, as his 92-year-old father, suffering from prostate cancer, spent the last year of his life with his son. The film won him the best director prize at Cannes and a Golden Globe.
The following year signalled a further change in direction when he produced Lou Reed's Berlin, filming three revival performances of the artist in concert in 2006. Schnabel told an interviewer at the film's screening at the Tribeca Film Festival that seeing Reed perform after all these years "was sort of like watching [the actor] Chris Walken perform open-heart surgery on himself."
In the same year he filmed Berlin, he was commissioned by Ian Schrager to decorate New York's Gramercy Park Hotel on Lexington Avenue. He filled the public spaces with his own paintings, sculptures and furniture, summing up the effect as "rock 'n' roll baroque". In commissioning Schnabel, the edgy Schrager obviously had the artist's Palazzo Chupi in mind.
In 1987 Schnabel had rented space for a studio in a former stable on West 11th Street in New York. After his first marriage ended, he moved into a tiny space above the studio, and in 1997 bought the building. Over a period of two years, a 50,000-square-foot edifice took shape - a 17-storey, Pompeii-red tower with 180 windows, balconies fit for Romeo and Juliet, a triplex, two duplexes (one of which became his family home) and two one-floor apartments (Richard Gere bought one). Naming it Palazzo Chupi, after his wife, he was at least partly driven by the modest ordinariness of his parents' Brooklyn house. As he told Vanity Fair, "Everything was fake, except them. It was the feeling of limitations."
Inspired by Giotto's frescoed Scrovegni Chapel in Padua in the Veneto, he wanted a place where his paintings could be walls. And the walls were turquoise, mint and fuchsia with soaring, church-like ceilings that accommodated his greatest pictures, the Procession of Jean Vigo and St Sebastian. As New York Magazine put it, from his palazzo "he can look down on his father's old haunts".
And here he somehow manages to spend time with his family. His eldest son, Vito, an art dealer, observed, "There is no downside to being a Schnabel". He and his two sisters have taken their part in Manhattan society. Vito, Lola, a painter and filmmaker, and Stella, an actress and poet, are the children of his first marriage to Jacqueline Beaurang, a clothing designer. They divorced but remain friendly - she lives seven blocks away. He married, secondly, Olatz Lopez Garmendia, a Basque actress and model, whom he met in San Sebastian, where he has a house. He courted her by painting her name on a series of canvasses. They have twin sons, Cy and Olmo. He has since fallen in love with a Palestinian, Rula Jebreal, who wrote the novel and screenplay for his latest film, Miral.
Jebreal, on whom the 17-year-old Palestinian Miral is based, chronicles her life in the Dar al-Tifl orphanage, founded in Jerusalem by Hind Husseini after the events of 1948 in Palestine. Slumdog Millionaire's Frieda Pinto plays Miral; Alexander Siddig is her loving father, while Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass plays a commanding Hind.
Early screenings at the Venice and Toronto film festivals have elicited mixed reviews - of a certain flatness, fragmentation and a disappointment at its naïveté - that it fails to analyse or express the political dimensions. But Schnabel, the abiding artist, appears to have created from this seemingly intractable tragic mess a film of ineffable beauty. Vanity Fair wrote of the audience being "bombarded with frame-by-frame beauty"; of Schnabel applying "a painter's technique, working in deep hues, super-soft focus, and an intoxicating palette ... the film sometimes looks like a van Gogh in motion."
Schnabel felt he had a responsibility to take on the film: "As my mother was president of Hadassah (the Women's Zionist Organisation of America) in 1948, I figured I was a pretty good person to try to tell the story of the other side." He said that the values instilled in him by his mother were the same as those instilled in Jebreal by Hind Husseini. Again, as with much of his work, Schnabel's personal vision is firmly present and perhaps in new focus as he dedicates Miral to "All Those Who Still Believe in Peace."
* The National
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Bio
Born in Dibba, Sharjah in 1972.
He is the eldest among 11 brothers and sisters.
He was educated in Sharjah schools and is a graduate of UAE University in Al Ain.
He has written poetry for 30 years and has had work published in local newspapers.
He likes all kinds of adventure movies that relate to his work.
His dream is a safe and preserved environment for all humankind.
His favourite book is The Quran, and 'Maze of Innovation and Creativity', written by his brother.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Company%20profile
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)
Power: 141bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh64,500
On sale: Now
Results
5.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Dirt) 1,600m, Winner: Panadol, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)
6.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,400m, Winner: Mayehaab, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
6.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh85,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Monoski, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
7.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (T) 1,800m, Winner: Eastern World, Royston Ffrench, Charlie Appleby
7.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Madkal, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass
8.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (T) 1,200m, Winner: Taneen, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
The Pope's itinerary
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial
Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport
Financial considerations before buying a property
Buyers should try to pay as much in cash as possible for a property, limiting the mortgage value to as little as they can afford. This means they not only pay less in interest but their monthly costs are also reduced. Ideally, the monthly mortgage payment should not exceed 20 per cent of the purchaser’s total household income, says Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching.
“If it’s a rental property, plan for the property to have periods when it does not have a tenant. Ensure you have enough cash set aside to pay the mortgage and other costs during these periods, ideally at least six months,” she says.
Also, shop around for the best mortgage interest rate. Understand the terms and conditions, especially what happens after any introductory periods, Ms Glynn adds.
Using a good mortgage broker is worth the investment to obtain the best rate available for a buyer’s needs and circumstances. A good mortgage broker will help the buyer understand the terms and conditions of the mortgage and make the purchasing process efficient and easier.
MATCH INFO
Asian Champions League, last 16, first leg:
Al Ain 2 Al Duhail 4
Second leg:
Tuesday, Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha. Kick off 7.30pm
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
FIXTURES
Thu Mar 15 – West Indies v Afghanistan, UAE v Scotland
Fri Mar 16 – Ireland v Zimbabwe
Sun Mar 18 – Ireland v Scotland
Mon Mar 19 – West Indies v Zimbabwe
Tue Mar 20 – UAE v Afghanistan
Wed Mar 21 – West Indies v Scotland
Thu Mar 22 – UAE v Zimbabwe
Fri Mar 23 – Ireland v Afghanistan
The top two teams qualify for the World Cup
Classification matches
The top-placed side out of Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong or Nepal will be granted one-day international status. UAE and Scotland have already won ODI status, having qualified for the Super Six.
Thu Mar 15 – Netherlands v Hong Kong, PNG v Nepal
Sat Mar 17 – 7th-8th place playoff, 9th-10th place play-off
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle from Dh5,555 return, including taxes. Portland is a 260 km drive from Seattle and Emirates offers codeshare flights to Portland with its partner Alaska Airlines.
The car
Hertz (www.hertz.ae) offers compact car rental from about $300 per week, including taxes. Emirates Skywards members can earn points on their car hire through Hertz.
Parks and accommodation
For information on Crater Lake National Park, visit www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm . Because of the altitude, large parts of the park are closed in winter due to snow. While the park’s summer season is May 22-October 31, typically, the full loop of the Rim Drive is only possible from late July until the end of October. Entry costs $25 per car for a day. For accommodation, see www.travelcraterlake.com. For information on Umpqua Hot Springs, see www.fs.usda.gov and https://soakoregon.com/umpqua-hot-springs/. For Bend, see https://www.visitbend.com/.
MATCH INFO
Chelsea 1 (Hudson-Odoi 90 1')
Manchester City 3 (Gundogan 18', Foden 21', De Bruyne 34')
Man of the match: Ilkay Gundogan (Man City)
SQUADS
South Africa:
JP Duminy (capt), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wkt), AB de Villiers, Robbie Frylinck, Beuran Hendricks, David Miller, Mangaliso Mosehle (wkt), Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Tabraiz Shamsi
Bangladesh
Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Imrul Kayes, Liton Das (wkt), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt), Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Soumya Sarkar, Taskin Ahmed
Fixtures
Oct 26: Bloemfontein
Oct 29: Potchefstroom
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')
Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
