The Art of Julian Opie
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Julian Opie has a track record of a distinguished style in his artistic creations. He depicts the seemingly mundane aspects of life like birds, trees, buildings, and animals in a unique way. He was born in 1958 in London and brought up in Oxford (Ficpatrik, 2014). After that, he mastered his art from Michael Craig-Martin, who was a painter and imaginary artist. His following years were spent in developing his skill through several collaborative efforts. He joined hands with other artists, and together they formed an exhibition called the New British Culture. The exhibition was a blend of wit and humor clothed in a depiction of the items in the contemporary urban environment.
Over the years, Julie Opie’s works have gained traction on the media. His digital and graphic art is of great value to social media sites. Moreover, he also ventured in the productions of animations, which adds to his backpack of creativity (Jones 2015). Opie has also extended his art to be displayed in the public arenas like London’s Tate Gallery. He has also worked with several Pop music artists in creating a cover for their albums—for instance, the band Blur and the much-celebrated Bryan Adams.
Julian’s Paintings
- A distinctive feature highlighted in the paintings of Opie includes the thick black outlines. Several paintings done by Opie are specific with the lush layout. In addition, the layouts are filled with well-grounded sections of flat colors. This strategy weaves the art of Pop culture and starks to give rise to a relevant art that depicts the contemporary forms of life. In his sentiments, Julian echoed that it is crucial to go through art as a replica, and yet, it still holds the finer details of the form of reality that it represents. He termed it as the framework of his art (Brown 2014).
- Another characteristic feature of Opie’s paintings is exercising restraint of line-work, which leaves a lot of spaces within the portraits. His particular areas while drawing human beings are clothes. The open spaces within the layouts of the paintings are vital in availing variations and minimizing the amount of line works included. Opie is consistent in maintaining a subtle distinction in most of his paintings, giving him a form of originality and creates an identity for his pieces of art.
Writings about the Sculptures of Julian.
- At the inception of his work, Opie paid attention to the steel sculptures. This focus was impacted by the art of Pop culture and the seemingly minute aspects of life. He brought his creative ideas to life by cleaning his artistic elements to portray their aesthetics to the recipients of his works of art (Brown 2014).
- In the same manner, the sculptures done by Opie were also influenced by the same concept of the paintings. They were open with a thick frame of the layout. The layout highlighted the definitive features of the specific object that is showcased. For instance, his sculpture done crafted for the Yorkshire sculpture park demonstrates perfect work. It is a galloping horse that appears open with a spelled-out layout that is distinctive of a horse. The work can be considered a monument since Opie poured in his abilities and left out the details often brought about with the line-works to portray originality.
- In addition, the protrusive outline of the sculpture avails the feeling of movement and direction, which is quite contrary to the conventional sculptures that usually appear static. This description adds to the originality and the distinction held by the pieces of art done by Julian.
Writings on the Animations of Julian
- Julian has always formed his animation from a series of single taken pictures. A typical example was demonstrated when Julian set out to compile 30 frames of drawings after establishing a stride to come up with a drawing with a visual appearance in motion. The image can run progressively, coming out as an animation. Moreover, when he brings several runners together in a single painting, the final drawing comes out as a complicated shifting image that insinuates motion (Opie, 2018).
- Julian’s animated drawings are usually produced on the lenticels, which displays the images to appear in motions as the viewers are moving along them. However, when the viewer comes to a halt, the photos also appear static.
The Design Language Employed by Julian
- Julian Opie’s design language is specific and holds three significant classifications. It can be categorized as simple, clean, and bold. The detailed areas in the artistic illustrations of Julian are in the thick black outline. His layouts are revealing the finer details of a piece of an object, which makes the recipients feel his designs. Moreover, the flat colors add to the simple and specific information of the art pieces.
- Another noticeable feature of his drawings is the open spaces. Within the thick outlines are always open spaces that bring about simplicity in the images. It is an aspect that is more appealing and omits the inclusion of the unnecessary line works. His open space balances out with the thick outlines, often accompanying his drawings.
References
Brown, M. (2014). Julian Opie: ‘The idea of what I’m doing … it makes me nervous’. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/20/julian-opie-holburne-museum-exhibition
Ficpatrik, M. (2014). Julian Opie. https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/julian-opie/
Jones, J. (2015). Julian Opie’s portraits in motion: this is what genius looks like – review. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jun/03/julian-opie-2012-2015-review-portraits-in-motion
Opie, J. (2018). Julian Opie: ‘It’s only when you are bored that you can see’. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/apr/25/julian-opie-joggers-crows-cityscapes