Ruth With Cigarette 3
Ruth With Cigarette 3
Signed Print
Julian Opie
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92 x 66cm, Edition of 50, Digital Print
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Meaning & Analysis
Ruth With Cigarette 3 is a print from Julian Opie’s Ruth With Cigarette series from 2005 that features a three-quarter length portrait of a woman, turned to face the viewer with her right hand lifted and dressed only in her bra. The figure, Ruth is an art collector living in Geneva who commissioned Opie to create the series of images.
Amidst a contemporary world saturated with information, Opie presents us with an image stripped down to the bare minimum components that make up a portrait. Using a standardised version of the human form, reminiscent of signs that can be found on lavatory doors, Ruth With Cigarette 3 is rendered in a decidedly depersonalised visual language. By presenting the figure without any facial features and a floating blank circle as a head, the figure appears more like a sign than an individual to be recognised.
Producing a computer generated image that uses flat, saturated colour and simplified shapes, Opie mimics the visual language of mass media and advertising. Ruth With Cigarette 3 also plays into this idea through depicting a stereotypical sexualised image of the ‘ideal’ woman as found in magazines, television and film. By rendering the figure without any facial features and a floating blank circle as a head, Opie forces the viewer to consider why they find this image so alluring and what constitutes attractiveness.