Fakires

Mediums: оil, resin and cardboard on a cotton drop cloth.
Location: the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (Spain).

A feature of the work of Julian Schnabel is his constant experiments with the surface of the picture, the texture of which plays the same important role as the image itself. In the work “Fakires”, the artist used a dense cotton fabric, which house painters spread during the repair on the floor, so as not to stain it. On top of the abstract figures and several cardboard elements glued to the canvas, Schnabel wrote the name of the work in big black letters. The inscription has a double meaning, being both a symbol and a purely artistic object. In addition, the artist hints at a linguistic game: the word “Fakir” is consonant with the English “faker”, which means a dishonest person, a deceiver.