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Julian Opie ('Julian with T-shirt')

5 of 6 portraits by Julian Opie

© Julian Opie / DACS; courtesy Lisson Gallery

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Julian Opie ('Julian with T-shirt')

by Julian Opie
LCD screen with integrated software, 2005
43 3/8 in. x 25 7/8 in. (1102 mm x 658 mm)
Purchased with help from Channel 4, 2007
Primary Collection
NPG 6830

Sitterback to top

  • Julian Opie (1958-), Artist. Sitter in 1 portrait, Artist or producer of 6 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Julian Opie (1958-), Artist. Artist or producer of 6 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.

This portraitback to top

This work forms part of a series of similar portraits that Opie has made of friends. Taking an innovative approach to realism, this self-portrait is computer animated, using algorithms which present Opie apparently breathing and blinking.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Cooper, John, A Guide to the National Portrait Gallery, 2009, p. 63 Read entry

    Most well known for his cover design for the Blur: The Best of album, Opie uses computer technology to reduce the complexities of the human form to its essentials. He is a leading ‘Young British Artist’ and a former trustee of Tate.

  • Howgate, Sarah; Nairne, Sandy, A Guide to Contemporary Portraits, 2009, p. 17 Read entry

    Julian Opie emerged on the British art scene in the 1980s. Using a distinctive flat graphic style that draws on caricature illustration and paintings from earlier centuries, Opie shows how, by the most minimal means, an individual presence can be brought into a picture. Opie’s self-portrait may depict a specific person – himself – but it also explores such issues as the essence of portraiture, the intrinsic elements that convey a person’s uniqueness and how a mix of colour and line can convey personality. This computer animated self-portrait forms part of a series of similar portraits of friends made by the artist.

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 2005back to top

Current affairs

London suffers its worst bomb attack since the Second World War when four devices are detonated during rush hour on public transport. Three of the bombs went off on tube trains, and one on a bus killing 56 people and injuring 700. A Leeds-based terror cell of British born or raised Islamic extremists committed the attacks.
John Sentamu becomes the first black Archbishop of the Church of England.

Art and science

As part of the international Make Poverty History campaign, ten Live 8 concerts are held simultaneously around the world to coincide with the meeting of the G8 and persuade the world's richest countries to 'drop the debt' owed by the world's poorest countries, increase aid to the world's poorest people and negotiate fairer international trade rules.

International

1,836 die in America as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding. The hurricane was the most costly in US history and one of the most deadly. It caused the levees of Lake Pontchartrain to break, which flooded 80% of New Orleans. About one million people evacuated the city while 25,000 stayed behind, many taking refuge in the city's Superdome.

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