“It is, of course, a luxury to create art and, on top of this, to insist on expressing one’s own artistic opinion. Nothing is more luxurious than this. It is a game and a very good game, at least for me; one of the few games which make life, difficult and depressing as it is sometimes, a little more interesting.” (Max Beckmann, 1941).

For at least two reasons this statement can lead into a discussion of the work of Julian Schnabel: first, in its implicit assumption of a special discipline accorded to art; second, in the mixture of sincerity and self-satisfaction allowed the artist. This show