The “tarp” paintings, made between 1986 and 1988, use tarpaulins for supports that previously covered army trucks. They are stretched and then painted or treated in some way by the artist. The random nature of the patterning caused by the wear to the tarpaulin provides the artist with a point of departure. It avoids the conscious or unconscious decision of where to put the holes, plates or antlers and how to manipulate the shape of the underlying support, because the tarpaulin has already been used. Sometimes Schnabel fixes them behind a car and drags them over asphalt, marking the surface on which he then paints. The rich surface.
