Upclose with Julian Schnabel

HK Magazine: You’re not allowed to smoke in here.
Julian Schnabel: Well, I’m a bit of a pirate like that.

HK: You came up in the New York art world with Basquiat. What was your thinking at the time?
JS: One thing I discovered quite young is I didn’t want to make the same paintings over and over so people would say “Oh, that’s a Schnabel!” They can probably tell anyway because of the unsavory way I make my paintings, but I didn’t want to use materials or ways of painting that other people use.

HK: What was your big breakthrough?
JS: The first thing people knew of me was the broken plates paintings. I thought if I smashed these plates and put them on this armature, that’d make a pretty good surface. It isn’t enough to just stick the fragments on and say, “This is art.” Can I have another cigarette?

HK: Sure. How does your process differ from other artists?
JS: I don’t particularly like a fresh white canvas, so I’ll paint on found objects or old works. It creates a sense of time - the painting under it was created at one moment and mine created at another. It's a conflict where it's interesting for a painting to exist.

HK: How do you feel about someone in 100 years time painting over your paintings?
JS: I think they can do whatever the hell they want. I won’t be here.

HK: What about the surreal text written on your works?
JS: It can come from anything. Once, Lou Reed was getting into my jeep. I lifted up the tailgate and told him “Be careful!” He was afraid his head would be cut off. It wasn’t, obviously, and he was embarrassed and said, “I’ve always thought of myself as taller.” I thought that sounded pretty good so I wrote it on a painting. “Milton, puffy clouds and strong cocktails,” came from me thinking that if you read “Paradise Lost,” you might need a stiff drink and a nice sky. Can I have another cigarette?