He paints with simple black lines and primary colours, and most of his characters don’t even have faces. Yet Julian Opie captures our world in stunning detailArt is a mere imitation of life. Worse, it is not even an accurate imitation. All it can really do is point to the way things look, and hope we recognise a human face in what is just an oval shape with dots for eyes and a line for a mouth. All representational art works like this, from ancient Greek vase paintings to Picasso’s cartoon babes, but few artists have ever explored the reductive essentials of picturing the world as relentlessly as Julian Opie. This lover of dumb beauty, connoisseur of modern life and scientific explorer of the nature of perception wears his thinking lightly. So lightly he might be mistaken for a vacant pop stylist. Yet his exhibition of up-to-the-minute observations of the way we look now is a wonderland for the eye; a revelation of the fleeting beauty of this world. It will make your day, refresh your soul and change the way you see city streets, faces and fields full of sheep for a long time to come. Continue reading...
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