JULIAN OPIE, RED YELLOW BLACK WHITE, STANDING PEOPLE SERIES, SIGNED LENTICULAR PRINT, EDITION OF 25, 2020
Red Yellow Black White is a lenticular panel from Julian Opie’s Standing People series from 2020. The work shows four full-length figures, each standing in a casual manner as though waiting for a bus and facing outwards to the viewer. Each figure is depicted in a different colour, as indicated by the title of the work.
Red Yellow Black White is representative of Opie’s skill in striking a balance between the realism of fine art and the eye-catching elements of graphic design. The artist combines the vernacular of everyday life with his highly stylised visual language, using bold lines and bright, saturated colours. Despite his abstract style, Opie considers himself to be a realist who works outside of metaphors noting that, “reality is a complex construction that is built from experience.”
Using lenticular technology as a key component to this work, Opie produces a moving image that shows the figures making small movements such as folding their arms. Opie has demonstrated a keen interest in movement and animation throughout his career, often using movement as a form of realism and to create dynamic images of modern life. Combined with photographic realism, the use of the moving image in this print functions to create an uncanniness that toes the line between representation and reality.
Read more about the Standing People series 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.
