Catherine Opie

Art

Opie's work is characterized by formal rigor, technical expertise, art history references, and socio-political commentary. She mixes traditional photography with unconventional subjects.^{[15][24][25][11]} For example, she explores abstraction in the landscape through the placement of the horizon line in the Icehouses (2001) and Surfers (2003) series.^[26] She has printed photographs using Iris prints,^[1] instant film,^[27] and photogravure.^[28] Examples of art history references include the use of bright color backgrounds in portraits that reference the work of Hans Holbein the Younger^[18] and full-body frontal portraits that reference the work of August Sander.^[29] Opie also depicted herself with her son in the traditional pose of Madonna and Child in Self Portrait/Nursing (2004).^[30]

Opie's earlier work relies more heavily on documentary photography as opposed to allegory, yet in both she uses powerful and personal iconography.^[31] For instance, the portrait Self Portrait/Pervert (1994) uses blood on herself to confront ideas about normality.^[32] The symbolism used in this work is a recurring statement for Opie, also seen in another work entitled Self-portrait/Cutting (1993).^[33]

Opie first became known for her series with Being and Having (1991) and Portraits (1993–1997), which portray queer communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco.^[11]

Being and Having includes 13 colour photographs of Opie's lesbian friends and looks at the performance of gender identity and masculinity, with visual references to 17th-century Old Master portraiture.^[34][10]

Also exploring ideas of the outward portrayal of identity, in Dyke (1993), Opie portrayed her friend Steakhouse, who has the word "dyke" tattooed on her neck.^[10] This photograph was also the first time Opie used a fabric background for her portraits, again alluding to Old Master paintings. She has said that she sees this photograph as existing within the history of painting, rather than photography.^[10]

In Portraits (1993–1997), Opie presents a variety of identities among the queer community, such as drag kings, cross-dressers, and trans men.^[15][34] The images reference Renaissance paintings of saints and characters.^[31]

A common theme in her work is the concept of community. Opie has stated that "portraiture literally creates a history of one’s community."^[10] She has made portraits of groups including LGBT people, surfers, and high school football players.^[35][36] Her work is informed by her identity as an out lesbian.^[37][10] Her work also explores how the idea of family varies between straight and LGBTQ communities, with that LGBTQ people often basing their families on close friendships and community while straight people focus on their nuclear biological families.^[38] She is also interested in how identities are shaped by our surrounding architecture.^[39]

Her project American Cities (1997–2006) is a collection of panoramic black-and-white photographs of American cities.^[40] This series is similar to an earlier work of hers, Domestic (1995–1998), which documented her 2-month RV road trip, portraying lesbian families engaging in everyday household activities across the country.^[34]

Drawing inspiration from the transgressive photography of Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, and feminist sex radicals, Opie has also explored controversial topics and imagery in her work.^[1] In her O folio—7 photogravures from 1999^[28]—Opie compiled extreme close-ups of sadomasochist pornographic images she had taken for On Our Backs.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011, Opie photographed the home of Elizabeth Taylor in Bel Air, Los Angeles. Taylor died during the project and never met Opie. Opie took 3,000 images for the project; 129 comprised the completed study.^[41] The resultant images were published as 700 Nimes Road.^[42] Collector Daily noted the "relentless femininity of Taylor's taste" in the images contrasted with Opie's self-declared "identity as a butch woman" in Opie's foreword to 700 Nimes Road, and Opie's "status as an ordinary mortal" in comparison to Taylor's stardom.^[43]

Opie's first film, The Modernist (2017), is a tribute to French filmmaker Chris Marker's 1962 film La Jetée.^[44] Composed of 800 still images, the film features Pig Pen (aka Stosh Fila)—a genderqueer performance artist—as the protagonist. The Modernist has been described as an ode to Los Angeles that also questions the legacy of modernism in America.^[45] The twenty-two-minute film is about a performance artist who wants his own home and has fallen in love with the architecture of Los Angeles. Unable to purchase a place to live, the artist starts burning down the architecture of LA.^[45]

Teaching

Opie's teaching career began in 2001 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).^[27] In 2019, UCLA announced Opie as the university’s inaugural endowed chair in the art department.^[46] She has also taught photography workshops at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and Fine Arts Work Center.^[47][48]