In the summer of 1973, I moved back to New York City from Brownsville, Texas. I was twenty-one and had been accepted in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program; to get in, I sandwiched my slides between two slices of bread, stuck them in a paper bag, and mailed it to New York. Dumb trick, but I wanted to be sure they’d look at my slides. I would have come anyway, but I thought this would give me an introduction to a community of other young artists. In New York, my plan was to eat pizza and paint pictures.

An art book and memoir, Julian Schnabel’s stunning collection of artworks (his and others’) is perhaps one of the most beautifully packaged books ever to be published. Black title text on acetate jacket over painted four-color linen case. This first edition, second printing, is very good: some yellowing to the outer page edges and minor wear to case corners.

Random House, 1987

9” X 12” and 228 pages