Julian Schnabel

So many different artists of my kind of generation.

Julian Schnabel was always very, very supportive to many people.

I always loved David Solly's work.

Yeah.

It would just have to be an amazing room to be in, where you'd rather be there than almost anywhere else in the world.

They got a Julian Schnabel of the, the character Puck-

Sometimes

... near the Puck Building, in the Puck Building.

I just think when I look back, well, I wasn't there.

I mean, I was, I'm a product of the 80s, but I wasn't, you know, I didn't, I didn't see Julian Schnabel, Andy Warhol and Basquiat and everything was going on in New York.

That was a scene that was a physical thing that was going on.

Like, I just don't think that that's a thing anymore.

I mean, it was insane.

It's like, it felt like Julian Schnabel sitting in the middle of this vast space with these big paintings on the wall.

I would want a space like that.

I'd want a space that was big, that was, um, that was echoey, that had the opportunity to have multiple works out at one time.

I'm going to go home and watch it now.

Have you watched other Julian Schnabel films?

No.

Okay.

Yeah, me too.

The director, Julian Schnabel.

Remember the Gary Oldman character? Yep.

He's that person in real life.

So he fucking wrote the movie.

He was a painter, a director.

He did all these things.

And I remember one time a guy said, you know what Julian's problem was? He was so talented, but he never concentrated on one thing.

And today we traverse heaven, hell, and earth, and also purgatory to discuss the 2025 film In the Hand of Dante.

Based on a 2002 novel by Nick Toshes, the film was directed by Julian Schnabel and was co-written by Schnabel as well as with his partner, Luis Kugelberg.

It stars Oscar Isaac, along with Gail Gadot, Jared Butler, John Malkovich, Luis Calchemi, Sabrina Impacciatore, Benjamin Clementine, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, and Jason Momoa.

And since we're a little bit out of our element, we are joined by a special guest, my colleague, Dr. Gianna Albaum, lecturer in Italian Studies at Smith College, where she teaches Italian literature and culture.

Yeah, and like the – I mean, and this is where another sort of thing I get hung up on are artistic works about other artists that get incredibly navel-gazy.

Because it's interesting in Dante is like entirely in his status as like capital G great artist, capital A, right? And then it's just like this idea of like legacy and art, but like it's not interested in what that art is.

It's very like – solipsistic right it's like it's interested in the artist like it's this is like the ultimate like alter theory movie right yeah and also like you should note that that julian schnabel's like his other films have been about uh bobby like the the french author who had like locked in syndrome that's his most famous movie is uh diving bell and the butterfly which is about like a writer who basically gets like locked in he dictates his memoir via like the basically his eye movements.

He has another film about Basquiat.

Today, I'm joined by Sai Schnabel, curator, writer, and founder of the gallery Villa Magdalena.

Born in New York, 1993, Sai grew up surrounded by art as the son of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel and Basque designer Olatz Lopez Garmendia.

After studying political science and developing curatorial projects in Mexico and San Sebastian, he founded Villa Magdalena in 2020.

The gallery began in a former painting studio at his family home on Monte Igueldo.