Sissi

This work was presented in the Julian Opie exhibition “Sculptures, Paintings, Films” (18 October 2014 – 25 January 2015) in the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow. In this exhibition by one of the most renowned contemporary British artists, MOCAK is presenting new works, the majority of which have been prepared especially for the exhibition in Krakow.

Julian Opie has made hundreds of portraits that present people in all kinds of configurations and poses, featuring distinctive clothes and accessories; these portraits are immediately recognizable as his and they provide a fresh approach to an artistic concept that pre-dates our era. The artist acknowledges the very profound, very human need to own one’s portrait or that of one’s nearest and dearest, a need that existed long before it was met on a mass scale by photography. In time-sanctioned artistic tradition, Julian Opie accepts portrait commissions from individuals as well as making portraits of members of his family, his friends, workers in his studio, and, most recently, strangers in the street. He only portrays the living, whom he can film or photograph.