Deus ex Machina. Julian Schnabel

A fascinating selection of new works by international art superstar Julian Schnabel comes together in this catalog of his first major solo exhibition in Germany since 2004. The synthetic backgrounds for these new pieces are mostly enlarged snapshots photographs of images such as Indian deities or of historic paintings taken by the artist himself. Also an acclaimed film director, Schnabel uses these materials and their history as reference points, or fragments of the world. He says that using existing material adds an ethnographic aspect to the work, in that it introduces a real place and a real time to the aesthetic reality. This slim, large format book includes reproductions and installation photos and a text by critic R. Fleck.