Portrait of a Freedom Fighter
Artist: Julian Schnabel (American, born 1951)
Date: 1984
Dimensions:
71 5/8 x 60 1/4 in. (181.9 x 153 cm)
Medium: oil on panel with ceramic plate fragments and epoxy
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Levis and of the Woodward Foundation, by exchange
Object number: 2005.292
Label Text:"I believe that paintings are physical things that need to be seen in person… So my interest is in the battle between the pictorial and the object-ness of a painting."
View Portrait of a Freedom Fighter from a distance and you’ll notice how clearly readable the face is. But the closer you get to it, the more the face “dissolves,” and the details that make up the actual surface become more noticeable. During the late 1970s and 1980s, Julian Schnabel painted on broken china attached to flat structures, creating a hybrid of painting and sculpture. Schnabel explained, “I believe that paintings are physical things that need to be seen in person… So my interest is in the battle between the pictorial and the object-ness of a painting.” The discarded and fragmentary materials used to create this work of art invite us to consider the role of consumerism in creating perceptions of value and waste.
The “freedom fighter” is Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas (1943–1990), whose homosexuality and anti-authoritarian stances led to persecution and exile from his homeland. In 2000, Schnabel directed the Oscar-nominated film Before Night Falls, which recounts the poet’s travails and his suicide after battling HIV/AIDS.
View Portrait of a Freedom Fighter from a distance and you’ll notice how clearly readable the face is. But the closer you get to it, the more the face “dissolves,” and the details that make up the actual surface become more noticeable. During the late 1970s and 1980s, Julian Schnabel painted on broken china attached to flat structures, creating a hybrid of painting and sculpture. Schnabel explained, “I believe that paintings are physical things that need to be seen in person… So my interest is in the battle between the pictorial and the object-ness of a painting.” The discarded and fragmentary materials used to create this work of art invite us to consider the role of consumerism in creating perceptions of value and waste.
The “freedom fighter” is Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas (1943–1990), whose homosexuality and anti-authoritarian stances led to persecution and exile from his homeland. In 2000, Schnabel directed the Oscar-nominated film Before Night Falls, which recounts the poet’s travails and his suicide after battling HIV/AIDS.
On view
In Collection(s)