Julian Schnabel: Polaroids Exhibition at OstLicht Gallery – Large-Format Photography and Intimate Portraits

This exhibition at OstLicht Gallery showcased the photographic work of Julian Schnabel, focusing on unique large-format Polaroids taken with a rare 1970s twenty by twenty-four inch Polaroid Land camera. The collection featured intimate portraits of friends, family, and notable figures, alongside images of his studios and personal spaces, highlighting themes of life, art, and emotion.

For the first time in Austria, OstLicht Gallery presented the photographic work of renowned artist Julian Schnabel. The exhibition, titled 'Polaroids,' featured unique photographs taken over more than a decade using a rare twenty by twenty-four inch Polaroid Land camera, a model from the 1970s, of which only six are known to still exist. Schnabel's approach to these images is described as 'making' rather than simply taking pictures, resulting in highly personal and poetic works. The collection included charismatic portraits of friends and collaborators such as Lou Reed, Plácido Domingo, Mickey Rourke, and Max von Sydow, as well as intimate views of private rooms in his New York Palazzo Chupi and his studios in Montauk and Manhattan. These images are characterized by their immediacy and warmth, embodying spontaneous moments and recording the transformation of life into art. The exhibition also highlighted Schnabel's distinctive use of the large-format Polaroid film, prized for its unrivalled range of tones and shades. Despite the apparatus's bulkiness and slow lens, Schnabel operated the giant machine freely in various settings, including outdoors. In addition to the Polaroids, the exhibition included two paintings from 2010, 'Untitled (Crazy People),' which were created by enlarging and inking photographs of 1920s imagery. On the occasion of the exhibition, Schnabel also used the twenty by twenty-four inch Polaroid camera for the first time in Vienna.

All Polaroids featured in the exhibition are available for sale as unique prints, signed by the artist. Further ticketing or admission information is not detailed on this page.