Ruth with cigarette. 1

Julian Opie (1958- ) is a pop artist from London, England. In Korea, he is well known for the work [Walking People], which is a LED-based large media façade displayed at the Seoul Square building renewed in 2009. He was a key member in the ‘yBa (young British Artists),’ which led the Renaissance of British contemporary art, and began to come to fame for his work on the cover of the 10th anniversary album of a brit-pop band named ‘Blur.’ The cover of the album featured portraits of four bend members, in which the forms and appearances of the figures were simplified into thick lines and filled with bright colors to give a cheerful and pleasant look. Such expression of human figures has become his signature. Properties of human beings are minimized into simple lines by using computer programs and this symbolizes the anonymity of modern people and at the same time is a metaphor for industrialized production methods of the modern society. The Sehwa Museum of Art has five pieces of work in the [Run with Cigarette] series in its collection and this work is the first piece. Although this work features a real person named “Ruth” holding a cigarette, the figure can be just anyone because its ears, eyes, mouth, and nose are omitted. This work may possibly be produced unlimitedly by making a simple change to its form and colors.