JULIAN OPIE, ELENA AND CRESSIE GET READY FOR THE PARTY 2, ELENA AND CRESSIE GET READY FOR THE PARTY, SIGNED MIXED MEDIA, EDITION OF 30, 2011
Taken from the artist’s Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party series from 2011, Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party 2 is a print by Julian Opie showing a portrait of a young woman. Stemming from his interest in the human form and studying the figure in full length, from the 1990s Opie began to focus more closely on the heads of his models.
Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party 2 is an example of Opie’s style in its most realistic form. Retaining tonal details in the contours of the sitter’s face and finer details such as eyelashes, the figure appears like an animated character from a video game. The sitter is captured in a typical portrait composition, looking off into the distance to her left with wind blowing through her hair, exuding beauty and femininity.
When considered alongside the other images in the series, this print shows the figure turning her head from left to right in an animated fashion. As the series progresses, Opie focuses more closely on the figure’s features. Although realistic in character, Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party 2 is a graphic, depersonalised image due to the way in which Opie has used his well-known technique of drawing over individual photographs on the computer.
Read more about Elena And Cressie Get Ready For The Party by Julian Opie.
ABOUT JULIAN OPIE
British artist Julian Opie challenges traditional approaches to portraiture through his digitally designed and seemingly contradictory, depersonalised works. Working also with landscapes and cityscapes, Opie’s highly stylised work involves the reduction of photographs or short films into figurative reproductions created using computer software. The hallmarks of his artistic style are portraits and animated walking figures, rendered with minimal detail in black line drawing. Learn more about Julian Opie.
