Walking on a Street — Julian Opie
I have been to Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery to see the special exhibition of Julian Opie.
Entrance of the Special Exhibition by Julian Opie
On the walls of the huge gallery space, there exhibited large paintings of diversity of people, male and female probably walking on a street of a large city toward left or right directions. They are illustrated using black thick lines and uniformly painted using limited colors.
It is difficult to identify their age or jobs. They seem walking toward their own destinations independently and isolatedly, one by one. While they happened to share time and space only by chance, they would never meet again in the future.
It might be in New York, Boston or London. But it would be very difficult to identify the name of city only from each painting without titles.
Walking in Edo by Hiroshige
Let me compare the artwork of Julian Opie with a typical old Japanese print, ukiyoe by Hiroshige, illustrating people on a street in Edo, one of the biggest cities at that time.
People walking on a street are also illustrated by black lines and uniformly painted using limited colors. But their occupations can be clearly identified, fish sellers or servants of a lord, so it is easy to imagine what they are going to do after the scene. The location and time could be also very clearly identified without title, on a street near one of the major bridges in the early morning just before the sunrise.
I am not sure the exact definition of contemporary art. But it seems very clear that Julian Opie is illustrating people who are sharing the contemporary world freely but isolatedly only by chance.