Honorary Royal Academician Julian Schnabel was born in New York and is best known for his career in film and large-scale paintings, characterised by a sculptural quality. Gaining notoriety with his series of ‘plate paintings’ in the 1970s, Schnabel has continued to develop his unique visual language, creating large-scale works that explore themes including obsession, suffering, redemption and belief using a broad range of materials including broken crockery, velvet, cowhide, wood, wallpaper and flags.

Schnabel’s recent works continue to utilise a range of styles and techniques with the artist using inkjet prints in combination with oil, ink, spray paint and resin. Portraiture is a strong thread in Schnabel’s practice and artists, actors and iconic historical figures have all provided inspiration. Untitled (Bez) is one of a series of works which have taken found images of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, as a starting point. Schnabel has customised the image with expressive painted forms including watery outpourings from Shiva’s lips and an orange arrow which stabs him in the eye. Schnabel’s most eccentric statement, however, is the daubing of the name Bez (referring to a member of one of his favourite bands, the Happy Mondays) across the image. The combination of text and image presents a dramatic juxtaposition between eastern and western cultures, whilst challenging the conventions of painting.

Since his first solo exhibition in 1979, Schnabel has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including retrospectives presented in New York, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Venice, Colorado and Denmark. He has written and directed several notable films including The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) which was nominated for four Oscars and won Schnabel the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. His most recent film, Miral, won the UNESCO and UNICEF awards at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. He was elected an Honorary Academician in 2008. He lives and works in New York.