Known today chiefly as a film director, Julian Schabel (1951, New York) invited attention in the early eighties as one of the most successful representatives of New Painting, the maker of large, expressive “plate paintings,” as well as a person of eccentric behaviour and loud self-management. He keeps making art beside his films. The large sculpture in Ludwig Museum is not a typical Schnabel. We have been advised about the circumstances of its making by the seller, the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York. The work was first presented by Schnabel at his 1983 solo exhibition, in the company of other sculptures. Its counter-piece is Column, a stack of vases placed one on the other. The aluminium negative or mould is now Otto, complete with a bronze head and a high pedestal. The work is in our selection due to meanings that relate to sculpture in public space. With an abstract figure that is placed at an unreachable height, the artist both heroizes his subject and places it at a distance.
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New Acquisitions – Rarely Seen Works 13. March, 2009 – 14. June
The Ludwig Museum possesses a relatively small yet internationally significant collection of over 400 contemporary artworks. As the museum’s permanent exhibition is only able to show a small portion of the collection, we make an effort to present a fresh selection from time to time.