Julian Opie: Ikon Gallery. (Birmingham).(Brief Article)

Julian Opie is becoming the latest master of the long British tradition of landscape art. While he is popularly known at the moment for his simplified portraits of the rock group Blur, his recent show was chiefly an exploration of rural and coastal views, mediated through a sophisticated, often ironic intelligence.

Opie is an inveterate traveler: The work here attests to car trips through Holland, Switzerland, France, and Turkey as well as his native England. But he doesn't travel for the sake of leisure. There's method in his motoring: visiting family, getting to holiday ...

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