Famous for painting on various surfaces from velvet to tarps since the 1970s, Julian Schnabel revives his most famous painting surface in a show of new ‘crockery paintings’ at Pace Gallery that pay homage to Rome’s native umbrella pine. While staying in southern Italy to shoot his recently released film, ‘In the Hand of Dante,’ Schnabel noted the distinctively shaped tree in the Villa Borghese and in later encounters. In the current show, Schnabel also paints trees on copies of antique maps, another signature surface that suggests tantalizingly unknown places and histories. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 14th).
