Fact sheet JOP - Keyush

Julian Opie
Keyush (2025)
Lenticular acrylic panel in a brushed aluminium frame
specified by the artist.
49 x 80 cm
Edition of 50
Signed by the artist in black ink on a label printed with copy
number, artwork, and gallery details, affixed to the reverse
Julian Opie generously produced Keyush, one of two lenticular
editions, especially for Tate in 2025.

The two editions, Esther and Keyush are part of a new body of work
by Opie depicting school children. They are among the first of his
walking portrait works to depict children, marking a new
development in his practice.
Opie worked with a primary school to capture children from each
year group, up to Year 4, walking on film. ‘I found the best method
was to walk with them one by one across the school stage while my
assistant filmed from the other end of the school hall. We chatted as
we went and then they ran around, letting off steam, to join the
queue at the start. They were amazingly engaged and present,’ says
Opie. The film was meticulously translated into animation to create
continuous walking portraits. The portraits share the declarative
linearity and flatness of his work in general – the children’s faces
and clothes are neutral, but variations in hairstyle, height, clothing
and walking style differentiate them. The works follow a scheme, yet
each figure holds their individuality.
Opie has been using the medium of lenticular prints to create limited
edition artworks, often depicting figures walking or dancing, since
2004. To Opie, the lenticular encapsulates the magic of the everyday.
Like flip-books or zoetropes, lenticular prints fool the eye into seeing
an animated image through movement. ‘…we perceive movement
naturally as a series of still images’ says Opie. ‘Our view of the world
is a built illusion, a mental construct, so seeing the illusion taken
apart and recreated is a relief, is funny, is thrilling.’