Julian Schnabel, the American artist and filmmaker, was born in New York and greatly influenced by the European works of Antoni Gaudi, Cy Twombly and Joseph Beuys.

Though known primarily as a filmmaker, it was in 1979 that he exhibited for the first time as a painter, at Mary Boone Gallery, and went on to exhibit at the 1980 Venice Biennale. Amongst his celebrated films are Basquiat, Before Night Falls and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

His work can be found in key collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of modern Art,; The Whitney Museum of American Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Reina Sofia and the Georges Pompidou Centre.