Julian OPIE <br />
English 1958–<br />
Cars? 1998–99<br />
colour screenprint<br />
61.0 x 104.9cm<br />
Purchased, 2004<br />
© Courtesy of Julian Opie

BritPrint

Free entry

NGV International

Ground Level

21 Oct 05 – 29 Jan 06

This exhibition features recent print publications by some of the most acclaimed artists working in Britain over the past two decades. It brings together the work of 1990s YBA artists Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn and Jake & Dinos Chapman with that of an older generation who first came to prominence in the 1980s: Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Julian Opie and Langlands & Bell. Renowned for their work in sculptural, installation and painted formats, each of these artists has pursued their critical concerns in the print medium. The series of prints on display will introduce audiences to Hirst’s signature pharmaceutical imagery (The Last Supper, 1999), the Chapman Brother’s exploration of the mutated body (The Exquisite Corpse, 2000), Quinn’s interest in the nexus between desire and the unnatural (Winter Garden, 2004), Opie’s investigation into the play between the generic and the specific (Six screenprints, 1998-9), Sarah Lucas’s challenge of sexual stereotypes (Self-Portraits 1990-1998, 1999), Perry’s interest in sexuality and gender (A map of an Englishman, 2004), Langlands & Bell’s decoding of structures Frozen Sky (Night and Day) 1999 and Air Routes of Britain (Night and Day) 2000, Kapoor’s exploration of transcendent forms and infinite space (Wounds and Absent Objects, 1998) and Gormley’s use of the body to make art (Body and Soul, 1990).

All prints are drawn from the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, and entrance to the exhibition is free.