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Medium: Digital Print
Edition size: 50
Year: 2014
Size: H 87cm x W 54cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Academic is a signed digital print made by the pioneering British artist Julian Opie in 2014. The print comes in an edition size of 50 and shows a man, depicted from side-on, wearing glasses, a shirt and beige trousers. The man has a backpack on his back and the title of the print suggests he is an academic on his way to work. The man is rendered using thick black lines filled with blocks of flat colours and set against a bright blue backdrop.
Academic is part of Opie’s Walking In London collection which shows people from a variety of different professions walking around during the working day. The figures are all drawn without faces, meaning their identifies become reduced to their clothes, the accessories they are wearing and the objects they are holding. Other professions depicted in this collection include a nurse, a banker and an architect.
Walking In London reflects Opie’s interest in everyday reality and his fascination with capturing the mundane and the quotidian in his artworks. Opie chooses to depict ordinary people who are not known by the viewer, as opposed to finding ‘iconic’ subjects who are instantly recognisable, because the artist is more interested in creating artworks inspired by ordinary people.
Julian Opie, born in 1958, dances through the contemporary art scene with a distinctive digital allure. A trailblazer of the 1980s New British Sculpture movement, Opie's work is a highly stylised blend of Pop Art and minimalism which navigates the intersection of technology and visual expression. From his early experiments with computer-generated art to his iconic portraits and animated installations, Opie's work exudes a captivating simplicity. His signature style, marked by bold lines and reduced forms, is internationally recognisable and has made him a key player in British contemporary art.