FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A South Florida University is getting some major recognition from an internationally renowned artist.

Nova Southeastern University has received a major painting by internationally renowned artist Julian Schnabel.

The painting, titled Portrait of Olatz Schnabel, 1997, is a promised gift to the museum by Olatz Schnabel, the artist’s former wife.

“The longer you do it, you realize you’re not thinking about what other people are going to take away from this thing. You’re thinking about what you’re experiencing while you do it,” said Julian Schnabel. “The more you do it, it’s kind of like breathing.”

The painting along with four others will be unveiled at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale during a patrons dinner on Wednesday.

Museum Director and Chief Curator Bonnie Clearwater is a champion of Schnabel’s work.

“He is one of the artists who really broke new ground in the late 1970’s when most of the art was minimal and conceptual. He started reintroducing the figure and using its direction at the same time,” said Clearwater.

Schnabel is also a movie director who won the 2007 Cannes Film Festival Award and was nominated for four academy awards for his movie “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”

“I’m a painter. That’s everything that I know about film-making or about writing or about anything comes from the practice of painting,” said Schnabel.

The Portrait of Olatz Schnabel will remain at the museum. The other four paintings will be on loan to the museum and will be on view at the museum from March 12 through November 1, 2015.