Name: Luc And Ludivine Get Married. (pair 16)
Brand: Julian Opie
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of Julian Opie’s Luc And Ludivine Get Married. (pair 16) (signed) is estimated to be worth between £3,000 and £5,000. This digital print artwork, created in 2007, has shown consistent value growth, with an average annual growth rate of 1%. This is a rare artwork with an auction history of three total sales since its entry to the market on 21st January 2021. In the last 12 months, the hammer price has ranged from £1,488 on 21st January 2022 to £2,509 on 10th June 2022. The average return to the seller is currently £1,809. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 10.

Meaning & Analysis

Featuring two individual portraits of a man and a woman, Luc And Ludivine Get Married (pair 16) is a work from Julian Opie’s 2007 Luc And Ludivine Get Married series. Reminiscent of Victorian silhouette portraiture, this work shows the figures exclusively in black and white and presented in two elliptical frames.

Luc And Ludivine Get Married (pair 16) has the most obscure composition of the entire series, showing the figures facing away from the viewer to show only the back of their heads. In creating these portraits through ‘objective’ computer technologies and the visual language of graphic design, Opie forms a kind of ‘non’ style that disguises the artist’s hand. Much like the way in which the identity of the sitters is hidden by their facing away, Opie contains subjectivity within a depersonalised syntax of signs.

Opie toes the line between the visual language of graphic design and fine art with his use of bold lines, simplified shapes and flattened picture plane. The Luc And Ludivine Get Married series is unique in the artist’s oeuvre in the way that each portrait is presented in an oval frame with blown domed glazing. At the same time, the repetition of the same subject across an entire series, with small variants in each work, is very typical of Opie’s work since the mid-1990s.

Julian Opie, born in 1958, dances through the contemporary art scene with a distinctive digital allure. A trailblazer of the 1980s New British Sculpture movement, Opie's work is a highly stylised blend of Pop Art and minimalism which navigates the intersection of technology and visual expression. From his early experiments with computer-generated art to his iconic portraits and animated installations, Opie's work exudes a captivating simplicity. His signature style, marked by bold lines and reduced forms, is internationally recognisable and has made him a key player in British contemporary art.