JULIAN OPIE, WATCHING SUZANNE (FRONT) 10, WATCHING SUZANNE SERIES, SIGNED MIXED MEDIA, EDITION OF 25, 2006
Watching Suzanne (Front) 10 is a print from Julian Opie’s Watching Suzanne series from 2006 that shows a dramatically cropped image of a woman’s torso, depicted in thick, black lines. The figure is shown to arch her back and arms lifted above her head, with the composition cutting off her arms and bottom half of her legs.
This series of prints is representative of Opie’s fascination with both movement and the human body. Reducing the human figure to the minimal elements by which it can be represented, this image is highly abstract. This is indicative of Opie’s desire to create a syntax of signs from the human form, retaining a basic form but including small details that reveal something unique about the model.
As one of 20 images of the figure, Watching Suzanne (Front) 10, when considered within the series as a whole, forms part of an animation made up of still images. Opie shows the figure moving her hips from side to side then turning to face away from the viewer. Through his graphic visual language, Opie uses movement as a form of realism and as a means to differentiate between the people that he depicts throughout his oeuvre.
Read more about Watching Suzanne 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.
