Boon for Business

It came as little surprise that the opening of Julian Schnabel’s exhibition of navigation drawings at Sperone Westwater Gallery, in New York, was star-studded, with the supermodel Stephanie Seymour and actors Steve Buscemi and Harvey Keitel among a slew of celebs on hand. After all, Schnabel’s film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly had just premiered to rave reviews, so the show, which ran from January 8 to February 16, was auspiciously timed.

Made over the past year, the 39 works displayed were historical maps across which the artist had brushed thick strokes of paint, often forming crosses. In some, the map was clearly visible; in others, it was all but obscured. According to the gallery director Angela Westwater, aside from the handful she had reserved for the TEFAF fair in Maastricht this March, the works sold out swiftly, at $60,000 apiece for the smaller versions and $150,000 for each of three larger ones.

“Collectors find their sensuous palette and airiness appealing,” says Westwater, who didn’t disclose buyers’ names but did say there were new faces—hailing “from Canada to the tip of South America”—along with the usual museum trustees and the like.

Perhaps some of the excitement can be attributed to the fact that although Schnabel has had recent shows in Europe, he hasn’t had a major solo exhibition in New York since his monumental “Big Girl” paintings were on view at Gagosian Gallery, in 2002. But one shouldn’t discount the power of his directorial efforts. “People registered their admiration for the film in our sign-in book at the front desk,” said Westwater.

"Boon for Business" originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2008 Table of Contents.