Name: Ruth smoking. 1
Brand: JULIAN OPIE (b. 1958)
Price: 38000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

JULIAN OPIE (b. 1958)
Ruth smoking. 1
signed 'Julian Opie' (on a paper label affixed to the reverse)
computer film, 46 inch LCD screen and PC
43¼ x 25¾ x 4¾ in. (109.8 x 65.4 x 12 cm.)
Executed in 2006. This work is number one from an edition of four.

Provenance
SCAI the Bathhouse, Tokyo
Private collection
Anon. sale; Sotheby's, New York, 13 May 2009, lot 445
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Conditions of Sale
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This lot is offered by Christie's Inc

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Lot Essay

Ruth Smoking. 1 is an example of Julian Opie's ability to reconstruct reality through his unmistakable and universal style. The artist uses a dynamic vocabulary of lines and perspective to render playful figures on flat backgrounds. In the present lot, the woman, rendered in a seductive, but also cartoon-like, fashion, is brought to life through the repetition of cyclical movements, capturing the viewer's attention with through an almost hypnotic action. Opie's work remains a contradiction-on one hand purposefully flat and object-like and, at the same time, more life-like than any traditional art object.