A New York art world fixture since the 1980s, Schnabel is as well known for his relentless self-promotion as for his work as a painter, conceptual artist, and filmmaker.

Schnabel grew up in Brooklyn, decamped to Brownsville, Texas during his teenage years, and earned a B.F.A. from the University of Houston. In the '70s he returned to New York, where he worked as a cook and a cabbie to support his budding art career. Schnabel's early paintings, giant canvasses that incorporated pieces of fiberglass and broken crockery, first made a splash in 1979 when gallerist Mary Boone gave him his first solo show. But it was a 1981 show backed by Boone and Leo Castelli that truly clinched Schnabel's superstardom in the industry (and gave him a superstar worthy ego to boot). One of the most visible personalities on the downtown art scene in the '80s, Schnabel caroused with the Brat Pack crowd (Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis) as well as fellow art stars like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, all the while promoting himself relentlessly. But Schnabel's career took a dramatic turn downward when tastes shifted in the early 1990s. His work was increasingly viewed as symbolic of the excess of the '80s art market and demand cooled sharply.

With his painting career on the wane, Schnabel turned to film in his late forties, like Basquiat, Before Night Falls, and Miral. His most well received auteurial outing was 2007's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the story of the paralyzed editor of French Elle who wrote a book despite his inability to move any part of his body except his eyelid; the film netted Schnabel a Best Director award at Cannes and earned rave reviews from critics. But he hasn't entirely abandoned his roots. He continues to work on canvas and has even managed to recapture some of the cachet he enjoyed in the early '80s. [Image via Getty]