About the Artwork
Schnabel rose to prominence along with other neoexpressionists who used figurative content and appropriation to create a multitude of layered images taken from history, myths, and contemporary culture. Reviving religious and cultural archetypes, Schnabel uses an image from the Cabala, a system of interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures dating back to the thirteenth century. He incorporates imagery from both the Old and New Testaments, showing a man seated at a table on which sits an alembic and a torah. In a crystal vial, there seems to be a reflection of Saint John the Divine writing his Book of Revelation. Schnabel's unorthodox use of velvet for the background has historical connections with royalty and an association with kitsch-oriented souvenir pictures, especially black velvet canvases. His loose, streaked brushstrokes recall the gesture and emotion of the Abstract Expressionists in the 1950s, signaling a return to expression in both content and aesthetics.
Cabalistic Painting
1983
Julian Schnabel
born 1951
American
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Oil on velvet
Overall: 108 × 80 × 2 1/8 inches (274.3 × 203.2 × 5.4 cm)
Paintings
Contemporary Art after 1950
Founders Society Purchase, W. Hawkins Ferry Fund
1992.16
Restricted
Markings
Signed, on the back: Julian Schnabel
Provenance
the artist.Collection of Roger Davidson (Toronto, Ontario, Canada);
Locksley Shea Gallery;
1992-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Selections from the Roger and Myra Davidson Collection. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, 1987, p.63 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Julian Schnabel, Cabalistic Painting, 1983, oil on velvet. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, W. Hawkins Ferry Fund, 1992.16.
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