Julian Opie

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Julian Opie LED artwork in downtown Dublin
Sculpture Falling Books on the facade of the Walther König bookshop in Cologne

Julian Gilbert Opie (born December 12, 1958 in London ) is a British painter , sculptor and video artist .

Career

Opie studied at Goldsmiths College in London from 1979 to 1982 . In 1983 he began to work with sheet steel, which he shaped into various geometric figures, put together and painted in color. “In these wall objects made of steel, physicality, mass and volume were subordinate to appearance. That is why they could be read abstractly and in the sense of an illusion, not as a body that really spreads out in space ”. He had his first exhibition of his works in 1983 at Nicholas Logsdails Lisson Gallery in London. Already in 1984 Wulf Herzogenrath became aware of him, who exhibited his work (together with that of Tony Cragg ) at the Kölnischer Kunstverein . In 1995 he received the Sargant Fellowship of the British School at Rome and in 1995/96 the scholarship of the Atelier Calder in Saché , France.

plant

In his portrait series, which he started in 1997, he uses a computer program to reduce the facial features to the essentials with black contours, without losing the characteristic character of the person depicted. A popular example of these portraits is the cover design of an album by the British band Blur (Best of Blur). The characteristic facial features of the people seem to stand out even more clearly due to the striking simplification. He received an award from Music Week CADS for the best illustration "Best of Blur".

In more recent works, Opie brings movement into this reduced portrayal of people as a new moment. This is Kiera (2002) or Bryan walking (2004) show minimalist figures that are in constant motion and yet never move. For this work, Opie works with large flat screens or displays on which the computer-controlled animations show a permanent, flowing movement. A surrealistic effect results from the lack of space in the presentation, which has the display's surround as the only spatial reference. The animation Lyndsey talking (2004) introduces language as a new design element. The schematic representation of the people in the painting and the animations can be understood as the transformation of the people into products. In 2005 the rock band U2 showed a walking person as an LED representation in their stage show on their Vertigo tour .

He achieved his first international recognition with his colored steel objects at documenta 8 in 1984 . Numerous exhibitions in renowned galleries and museums followed, including 1993 Venice Biennale , 1999 Lenbachhaus Munich , 2000 Tate Britain , London, 2003 K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf, 2004-2005 animals, cars and people organized by the Public Art Fund in City Hall Park in New York City.

Julian Opie lives and works in London.

literature

  • Peter Noever (Ed.): Julian Opie: 1958 - recent works [publication on the occasion of the exhibition “Julian Opie. Recent Works “, Museum of Applied Arts, MAK Vienna , June 11 - September 21, 2008]. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2008, ISBN 978-3-7757-2266-7
  • Fernando Francés (Ed.): Julian Opie . [Publication on the occasion of an exhibition in the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, December 15, 2006 - March 18, 2007]. CAC, Málaga 2006, ISBN 978-84-96159-49-5
  • Mary Horlock: Julian Opie . Tate Publ., London 2004, ISBN 1-85437-470-2

Web links

Commons : Julian Opie  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lyme Cook: Julian Opie . In: documenta 8, Volume 2, Kassel 1987, pp. 180/180
  2. ↑ Daniel Kurjakovic (Text): Julian Opie - Portraits . Hantje-Cantz, Filderstadt 2003, ISBN 978-3-7757-1301-6
personal data
SURNAME Opie, Julian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Opie, Julian Gilbert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter, sculptor and video artist
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH London