This study examines the intersection of painting and cinema through the oeuvre of American artist Julian Schnabel. A controversial painter who came to prominence in the contemporary art world of the eighties, the study begins by contextualizing Schnabel within the art critical debates of the period. Addressing and revising the perceived reputation of the artist, the first chapter re-positions Schnabel predominantly as an inheritor of various traits of post-war American painting, in particular the somatic, affective and existential treatment of the canvas characteristic of action painting. The body of the study proceeds to compare the ways in which Schnabel’s cinematic practice borrows, extends and thus affirms many of his painterly approaches. Examining his four major film works (Basquiat, Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Miral) in tandem with his paintings, these chapters plot major confluences between the two media, in particular Schnabel’s overall use of a subjective, phenomenological method. Crucially, this aesthetic approach is shown to be in the service of an existential as opposed to epicurean aim, as it is most overtly expressed in his use of the objet trouvé and the dedication. The study ends by changing the vector of analysis to trace how Schnabel’s foray into the cinema may have influenced the aesthetic of his paintings, and subsequently how a reproductive medium such as film is able to push the boundaries of painting, not necessarily to announce its death. Ultimately, the goal of this study, beyond the monographic examination of a single artist, is to propose ways in which the medium of film has contributed to an evolving understanding of visual representation. For, unlike the modernist premise, the assumption is that it is precisely through the interaction and absorption of various formats that a medium can change, evolve and expand.

Jusqu'en art, la crise du sida est un tournant majeur de l'histoire contemporaine. Cette étude couvre la période allant de ses origines à la révolution thérapeutique (trithérapies) de la fin des années 1990, et s'intéresse à son impact sur les artistes américains et européens et leurs œuvres. Ceux-ci, sur la question, ont trop rarement été regardés ensemble, et pourtant: de Cindy Sherman à Derek Jarman, de Niki de Saint Phalle à Jeff Kaons, de Gilbert & George à Jenny Holzer, de Michel Journiac à David Wojnarowicz, on repère le même saisissement dans les représentations, qui ne pouvaient alors plus être les mêmes, et pour cause. Y est en effet passé tout ce qui travaillait profondément les sociétés occidentales au temps de l'épidémie, et d'abord le pire d'elles-mêmes qui se défoulait dans un espace social considérablement abîmé par la crise épidémique. Les images s'en souviennent, comme des forces de résistance qui lui furent opposées, et de la volonté intraitable de n'y rien céder, de sortir par tous les moyens d'une situation bloquée. Structuré en quatre parties ("l''esprit de catastrophe" ; "Les corps de la maladie" ; "Violence exaspérée" ; "L'esprit de communauté"), qui correspondent chacune à une entrée dans l'époque et dans la crise du sida, à une hypothèse les concernant, L'art en sida ... envisage la possibilité d'écrire une histoire de la maladie à partir des très nombreuses représentations qui la firent autant qu'elles ont été provoquées par elle. / The AIDS crisis was a major turning point of contemporary history. This work, which begins with the start of the epidemic and ends with the medicinal revolution that was triple therapy, at the end of the 1990's, focuses on the impact of AIDS on - and in the works - of American and European artists. These artists have rarely been considered together through the lens of the virus, and yet Cindy Sherman, Derek Jarman, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jeff Kaons, Gilbert & George, Jenny Holzer, Michel Journiac and David Wojnarowicz - they are ail seized by same need to represent this crisis, at a time when no representation could truly be unaffected. In these works of arts, the undercurrents of western societies - starting with the bleakest - could be made current. These images could act as a memorial, like an emblem of resistance to that which would oppose them, and as beacon of indomitable will to never give up, and to try and find a way out of a deadlock. Centred on four main parts (« The Spirit of Catastrophe» ; « Bodies of Sickness »; « Frustrated Violence » ; « Community Spirit »), which each correspond to a window into the aids crisis, four proposals are put forward in order to comprehend the artistic output of the period. Art in AIDS puts forward the possibility that the works produced at the time of the disease are as much an integral part of the history of the disease than they are a consequence of it.