Miklos, with Sargent the glossiness never quite falls into cliche, or sentimentality. He had a cool and quirky eye, and an abilty to set a scene/mood and leave it fluid. Same with Shnabel, although, I look at Shnabel and want more...sort of like fast food, it never quite satisfies.
JL, commercial is the word for Shnabel, although, he's posing as an artist.
With Andy Warhol, I think he always knew he was a commercial artist. He just put his stuff out there in a big way-- he lived it and it became this big thing.
I think his Esquire covers were really good.
A couple of years ago I purchased Schnabel's large and expensive ($75) book--the Harry N. Abrams publication--just to look with some regularly at reproductions of twenty five percent of his paintings. But it was worth it. I did the same with two books of the more admirable Mexican painter, Rufino Tamayo.
I guess if you look at his stuff frequently it could grow on me.
Then again, it reminds me of what they tell kidnap victims or prisoners of war-- as soon as you're caught plan your espcape, because the longer you are there you'll begin to empathize and become attached to your captors. I know there's a word for it...anyway, same goes with a big old purchase of a beautiful book of his paintings.
Is it called "identification with the agressor"?
In my case I tend to spend time looking ONLY at the large loosely painted abstracts. And I liked them before I bought the book. I cannot spend time on his portraits (especially those with the lines drawn over the eyes) or his shard works. Both of them are too gimmicky.
Not sure of the word for it, but we know what one another is talking about. Although, I am sure there's a German word for it.
Julien Shnabel is to the art world what Luciano Pavoratti was to opera-- he's kind of pig, but a gifted one. He's got his fingers in practically any commercial pot he can and he's in it for the exposure.
So, back to his abstracts, and this is where the gifted part comes in. I mean, have you heard Pavoratti sing Nessun Dorma? It's the same thing-- he does it better than anyone, but then he veres toward the commercial and it pretty much gets flushed down the toilet.
