Julian Schnabel
The Chimes of Freedom Flashing, 2022
Oil, spray paint, molding paste on velvet
84 x 66 x 1.5 inches
(213.4 x 167.6 x 3.8 cm)
© Julian Schnabel; Photo courtesy the studio
“All art is optimistic because it contains a denial of death” —Julian Schnabel.
Recently, Pace Gallery celebrated the opening of their new Los Angeles flagship outpost, a partnership with Kayne Griffin, in their 15,000 square foot space on South La Brea, a former 1940s auto showroom whose building is now ivy-covered. The opening exhibition, “For Esmé – with Love and Squalor” presents 13 recent paintings on velvet by Julian Schnabel as well as a large sculpture in the gallery courtyard on which the name ‘Esmé’ is written.
At the opening, Pace’s CEO Marc Glimcher and Bill Griffin of Kayne Griffin spoke to the assembled press, gallery workers and invited guests of their longstanding collaborations with artists from the California Light and Space movement, such as James Turrell, Robert Irwin, and Mary Corse. They also spoke to the entrepreneurial and creative spirit that links them and how their partnership adds global strength and local expertise and they spoke enthusiastically of the Schnabel exhibition inaugurating the new partnership’s space.