Julian Schnabel
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1951, Julian Schnabel moved with his family to Brownsville, Texas, in 1965. He attended the University of Houston from 1969 to 1973 and, after receiving a BFA, returned to New York City to participate in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.
His first solo painting exhibition took place at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York City in February 1979. Schnabel’s paintings, sculptures, and works on paper have been the subject of numerous international exhibitions. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York and Bilbao; Tate Gallery, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris, to list a few.
His multidisciplinary practice extends beyond painting to include sculpture, architecture, furniture, and film. In 1996 Schnabel wrote and directed Basquiat, an official selection of the 1996 Venice International Film Festival. Schnabel’s second film, Before Night Falls, based on the life of exiled Cuban novelist Reinaldo Arenas, won the 2000 Venice International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and its star, Javier Bardem, won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. For The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), Schnabel received the award for Best Director at Cannes as well as Best Director at the Golden Globes, where the film won Best Film in a Foreign Language. The film was also nominated for four Oscars. That same year, he made a film of Lou Reed’s Berlin concert at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. His 2010 film Miral won the UNESCO as well as the UNICEF Award at Venice. At Eternity’s Gate world-premiered at Venice in 2018, where Willem Dafoe won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and went on to earn Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. In 2025, Schnabel received the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, which premiered his new film, In the Hand of Dante, starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Bulter, John Malkovich, and Jason Momoa.
Schnabel has been a longtime and generous supporter of amfAR, notably donating auction items to raise money for the Foundation’s lifesaving research: a plate portrait at amfAR Gala Cannes in 2008 and 2025 and a painting, Untitled (Landscape), at amfAR Gala New York in 2020, among others. For his commitment to helping end the HIV pandemic, he was honored by amfAR at its 2008 New York Gala and received the amfAR Award of Excellence for Artistic Contributions to the Fight Against AIDS at TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art in 2001.
Julian Schnabel currently lives and works in New York City and Montauk.