Julian Opie – First experiments with figures made of steel and paint
Julian Opie was born in London on 12 December 1958. He studied at Goldsmith’s College of Fine Art from 1979 to 1982, followed by a teacher training course at the Chelsea College of Art whilst simultaneously pursuing his aspired career as artist. In 1983, he worked for the first time with sheet steel which he shaped into various geometric figures, arranged and colourfully painted. With these colourful metal objects, Julian Opie was not concerned with mass and physicality, but rather a certain form of appearance which he wished to achieve through the combination of sculpture and colour. He attracted attention early on with these works, including from Wulf Herzogenrath who arranged a collaborative exhibition with Julian Opie and Tony Cragg in the Kölnischer Kunstverein. Another early success was his participation in Documenta 8 in Kassel in 1987 – for which Manfred Schneckenburger was responsible – which finally brought the artist international recognition. In 1995, the British School at Rome honoured him with the Sargant Fellowship, and in 1995/96, he received a further fellowship followed from the Atelier Calder in Saché, France.
Reduced in depiction, pointed in expression
In 1997, Julian Opie began his famous portrait series in which he also used modern computer technology. With the help of special software, he succeeded in reducing the facial features to the essential in the form of black contour lines and individual dots, without losing the characteristic specifics of the person. On the contrary, it is precisely the deliberate, clever simplification that seems to bring out the important accents of a likeness even more strongly und unmistakeably. Julian Opie also used this reduced but pointed method of representation for Blur’s album cover, winning the artist a Music Week CADS award. The comic-like images that emerge are strikingly reminiscent of Pop Art, but possess nevertheless great independence.
Movement as the next step; signs as inspiration
Capitalising on the great success of his reduced portraits, Julian Opie reached the next level of his art by adding movement. For this end, he used large-format LED displays showing computer animated figures. An installation of this type formed part of the stage design of the rock band U2 in 2006. Opie names advertising signs as an important inspiration which, from the artist’s viewpoint, represent a fascinating symbiosis between information transmission and artwork. Julian Opie answered the obvious and sometimes criticised proximity to comics and advertising signs with the challenging question of whether the difference between the two is perhaps not great?
Julian Opie still lives and works in his hometown of London. His works can be viewed the whole world over in important museums and cultural institutions, for example the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the British Museum in London, and the Kunsthaus in Zurich.
Julian Opie - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
