Everything about Julian Opie totally explained
Julian Opie (born
1958) is a leading contemporary
English artist, who uses computerised imagery. He is a former trustee of the
Tate Gallery.
Life and work
Julian Opie was born in
London and raised in
Oxford. After the
Dragon School, Oxford, he spent some time at
Magdalen College School, Oxford. He is a graduate of
Goldsmiths College (1979–82) and achieved some early gallery success, which was an incentive for slightly younger artists in the same college, such as
Damien Hirst to do likewise.
His work, derived in part from
Patrick Caulfield and
Michael Craig-Martin, involves the reduction of photographs (or short films) into figurative reproductions (created using computer software). In his portraiture, the human face is characterised by black outlines with flat areas of colour, and minimalised detail, to the extent that an eye can become just the black circle of the pupil, and sometimes a head is represented by a circle with a space where the neck would be.
Opie uses computers in art for other works. His
Imagine you are... series, demonstrated how activities such as driving, walking and climbing could be represented by simple reductions. In addition, Opie uses sculpture and light installations to present items of everyday life.
Julian Opie's style was brought into the public eye when he was asked to design the cover for the British band, Blur's best of album. On the cover, the band members (clockwise from top left)
Graham Coxon,
Alex James,
Dave Rowntree and
Damon Albarn are transformed into Opie's style. Also, in 2005 and during Irish rock band,
U2,
Vertigo world tour, he showed another LED screen on part of stage set displaying an aimless walking man figure.
Julian Opie also implements computer technology by cutting out the outlines and coloured shapes, sometimes on vinyl, as in large display banners at
Tate Britain. Opie is a former trustee of the
Tate Gallery and exhibits with
Lisson Gallery and
Alan Cristea Gallery in London. His studio and workshop is based in
Shoreditch, London. He was the subject of a film by Illuminations in their the EYE series, in which they profile contemporary visual artists in Britain. He was also the subject of a book by Mary Horlock published by Tate Publishing as part of their Modern Artist series.
Opie created a monument to singer
Bryan Adams while he was in
Indianapolis because he's a "FM-rock, big-open-sound, low-slung-guitar feel that was appropriate enough." He felt that this type of pose holds a similar sexuality that his works with women (such as his work with
Kate Moss) have, though when he paints women they're often more blantantly sexually charged.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Julian Opie'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://julian_opie.totallyexplained.com">Julian Opie Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
