Julian Opie After Van Dyck

Nice exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of works by Julian Opie which pick up themes and styles from the Van Dyck self-portrait which is shown In the same gallery.

This is one of a series of displays in response to the gallery acquiring the self-portrait. Opie distils images down to their key points which still making it possible to read a likeness. In these pictures we see a similar pose to the self-portrait and similar lighting.

There were two of his LCD animations including one called George where the head turns from side to side and the shade changes across his face. There were two more abstract pictures where the figure was paired down to circles and squares.

I loved a paired down picture of a girl with a pony tail which I didn’t understand and saw it as abstract shapes until saw it reflected in another picture of the same girl which I hope I have captured in this picture. A very clever hang.

Closes on 7 January 2018

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