Chris Ofili

Last updated

Chris Ofili
CBE
Born
Christopher Ofili

(1968-10-10) 10 October 1968 (age 55)
Manchester, England
NationalityBritish
Education Chelsea School of Art
Royal College of Art
Known forPainting
Notable work No Woman No Cry (1998),
The Adoration of Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black Stars (1998),
The Upper Room (2002)
Awards 1998 Turner Prize
Red Bird - watercolour on paper Red Bird Chris Ofili.jpg
Red Bird - watercolour on paper

Christopher Ofili, CBE (born 10 October 1968) is a British painter who is best known for his paintings incorporating elephant dung. He was Turner Prize-winner and one of the Young British Artists. Since 2005, Ofili has been living and working in Trinidad and Tobago, where he currently resides in the city of Port of Spain. He also has lived and worked in London and Brooklyn. [1]

Contents

Ofili has utilized resin, beads, oil paint, glitter, lumps of elephant dung and cut-outs from pornographic magazines as painting elements. His work has been classified as punk art.

Early life and education

Ofili was born in Manchester, England, to parents May and Michael Ofili of Nigerian descent. [2] When he was eleven, his father left the family and moved back to Nigeria. [1] Ofili was for some years educated at St. Pius X High School for Boys, and then at Xaverian College in Victoria Park, Manchester. [3] Ofili completed a foundation course in art at Tameside College in Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester [1] and then studied in London, at the Chelsea School of Art from 1988 to 1991 and at the Royal College of Art from 1991 to 1993. In the autumn of 1992, he got a one-year exchange scholarship to Universität der Künste Berlin. [1]

Ofili visited Trinidad for the first time in 2000, when he was invited by an international art trust to attend a painting workshop in Port of Spain. [1] He permanently moved to Trinidad in 2005. In 2002, he married Roba El-Essawy, former singer with trip-hop band Attica Blues. [4] They divorced in 2019[ citation needed ]. He maintains a studio in Port of Spain, Trinidad. [1]

Career

Ofili's early work was heavily influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Georg Baselitz, Philip Guston, and George Condo. [1] Peter Doig was doing graduate work at the Chelsea College of Arts when Ofili was an undergraduate, and they soon became friends. [1] In 2014, art critic Roberta Smith held that Ofili has much in common with painters like Mickalene Thomas, Kerry James Marshall, Robert Colescott and Ellen Gallagher, and with more distant precedents such as Bob Thompson, Beauford Delaney and William H. Johnson. [5]

Ofili was established through exhibitions by Charles Saatchi at his gallery in north London and the travelling exhibition Sensation (1997), becoming recognised as one of the few British artists of African / Caribbean descent to break through as a member of the Young British Artists group. Ofili has also had numerous solo shows since the early 1990s, including at Southampton City Art Gallery]. In 1998, Ofili won the Turner Prize, and in 2003 he was selected to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale of that year, where his work for the British Pavilion was done in collaboration with the architect David Adjaye.

In 1992 he won a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Zimbabwe. Ofili studied cave paintings there, which had some effect on his style.

Between 1995 and 2005, Ofili focused on a series of watercolors, each about 9½ by 6½ inches and produced in a single sitting. [6] They predominantly feature heads of men and women, as well as some studies of flowers and birds. [7] Ofili's paintings also make reference to blaxploitation films and gangsta rap, seeking to question racial and sexual stereotypes in a humorous way. In a series of faces that Ofili called Harems, each arrangement consists of one man with as many as four women on each side of him. [7]

Ofili's work is often built up in layers of paint, resin, glitter, dung (mainly elephant) and other materials to create a collage. Though Ofili's detractors often state that he "splatters" [8] elephant dung on his pictures, this is inaccurate: he sometimes applies it directly to the canvas in the form of dried spherical lumps, and sometimes, in the same form, uses it as varnished foot-like supports on which the paintings stand.

Ofili has been founder and prime mover behind the short-lived Freeness Project. [9] This project involved the coming together of artists, producers and musicians of minority ethnic groups (Asian and African) in an attempt to expose the music that may be unheard in other spaces. Freeness allowed the creativity of unsigned contemporary British ethnic minority artists to be heard. The result of months of tours to 10 cities in the UK resulted in Freeness Volume 1 – a compilation of works that were shown during the tour.

After relocating to Trinidad in 2005, Ofili began a series of blue paintings inspired by the Jab Jab or "blue devils" who participate in the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, and the Expressionist group of German and Russian artists, Der Blaue Reiter. These paintings often employed the use of a silver, acrylic background with layers of dark oil pigment on top. [10] [11] Later iterations of these works were shown at Ofili's solo show Chris Ofili: Day and Night at The New Museum of New York which were installed in a very dimly lit room, causing viewers to adjust their eyes to the darkness in order to see the paintings. [12]

Ofili was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to art. [13] Ofili was included in the 2019 edition of the Powerlist, ranking the 100 most influential Black Britons. [14]

Exhibitions

Ofili's work was featured in a museum in the 1995 exhibition Brilliant! New Art from London at the Walker Art Center. [15] Significant solo exhibitions include the Arts Club of Chicago (2010), Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2006), the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005), and Southampton City Art Gallery (1998). In 2010, Tate Britain presented the most extensive exhibition of his work to date. [16] [17] In 2014, The New Museum in New York presented the first, major solo show of Ofili's work in the U.S. titled Chris Ofili: Night and Day. [12]

Controversy

The Holy Virgin Mary

One of his paintings, The Holy Virgin Mary , a depiction of the Virgin Mary, was at issue in a lawsuit between the mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art when it was exhibited there in 1999 as a part of the Sensation exhibition. The painting depicted a Black Madonna surrounded by images from blaxploitation movies and close-ups of female genitalia cut from pornographic magazines, and elephant dung. [18] These were formed into shapes reminiscent of the cherubim and seraphim commonly depicted in images of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary. Following the scandal surrounding this painting, Bernard Goldberg ranked Ofili No. 86 in 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America . Red Grooms showed his support of the artist by purchasing one of Ofili's paintings in 1999, even after Giuliani famously exclaimed, "There’s nothing in the First Amendment that supports horrible and disgusting projects!" [19] The painting was owned by David Walsh and was on display at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania. [20] Steven A. Cohen then owned it for three years and donated the painting to the Museum of Modern Art. [21]

The Upper Room is an installation of 13 paintings of rhesus macaque monkeys by Ofili in a specially designed room. It was bought by the Tate Gallery in 2005 and caused controversy as Ofili was on the board of the Tate Trustees at the time of the purchase. [22] In 2006 the Charity Commission censured the Tate for this purchase.

Art market

His Orgena, a glittery portrait of a black woman created by the artist for his Turner Prize-winning exhibit at the Tate in 1998 was sold to an American collector for a record GBP 1.8 million, over its GBP 1 million high estimate, at Christie's London in 2010. [23] In 2015, art collector David Walsh sold Ofili's 8-foot-tall The Holy Virgin Mary for 2.9 million pounds at Christie's. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuckism</span> International art movement

Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art. By May 2017 the initial group of 13 British artists had expanded to 236 groups in 52 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turner Prize</span> Annual prize presented to a British visual artist

The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible. The prize is awarded at Tate Britain every other year, with various venues outside of London being used in alternate years. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the UK's most publicised art award. The award represents all media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridget Riley</span> British painter (born 1931)

Bridget Louise Riley is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucian Freud</span> British painter and engraver

Lucian Michael Freud was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud. Freud got his first name "Lucian" from his mother in memory of the ancient writer Lucian of Samosata. His family moved to England in 1933, when he was 10 years old, to escape the rise of Nazism. He became a British naturalized citizen in 1939. From 1942 to 1943 he attended Goldsmiths' College, London. He served at sea with the British Merchant Navy during the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Doig</span> Scottish painter

Peter Doig is a Scottish painter. He has settled in Trinidad since 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saatchi Gallery</span> Physical and online contemporary art museum in Chelsea, London

The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the Damien Hirst-led Young British Artists, followed by shows purely of painting, led to Saatchi Gallery becoming a recognised authority in contemporary art globally. It has occupied different premises, first in North London, then the South Bank by the River Thames, and finally in Chelsea, Duke of York's HQ, its current location. In 2019 Saatchi Gallery became a registered charity and began a new chapter in its history. Recent exhibitions include the major solo exhibition of the artist JR, JR: Chronicles, and London Grads Now in September 2019 lending the gallery spaces to graduates from leading fine art schools who experienced the cancellation of physical degree shows due to the pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. B. Kitaj</span> American painter

Ronald Brooks Kitaj was an American artist who spent much of his life in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Fund</span> United Kingdom art charity

Art Fund is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as well as lobbying on behalf of museums and galleries and their users. It relies on members' subscriptions and public donations for funds and does not receive funding from the government or the National Lottery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bourne (artist)</span> British artist and painter

John Bourne is a British artist and painter, living and working in Wales, and a member of the Stuckists art movement. He founded the Wrexham Stuckists group in 2001 and has been exhibited in the group's shows since then, including The Stuckists Punk Victorian. He has also taken part in Stuckist demonstrations against the Turner Prize. The subject matter for his paintings, which are done in a simplified style, comes from his memories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Miro Gallery</span> Contemporary art gallery in London, England

The Victoria Miro Gallery is a British contemporary art gallery in London, run by Victoria Miro. Miro opened her first gallery in 1985 in Cork Street, before moving to larger premises in Islington in 2000 and later opening a second space in St George Street, Mayfair.

<i>Sensation</i> (art exhibition) 1997–2000 art exhibition

Sensation was an exhibition of the collection of contemporary art owned by Charles Saatchi, including many works by Young British Artists (YBAs), which first took place 18 September – 28 December 1997 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The exhibition later toured to the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin and the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. A proposed showing at the National Gallery of Australia was cancelled when the gallery's director decided the exhibition was "too close to the market."

<i>The Upper Room</i> (paintings)

The Upper Room is an installation of 13 paintings of rhesus macaque monkeys by English artist Chris Ofili in a specially-designed room. It was bought by the Tate gallery in 2005 from the Victoria Miro Gallery and was the cause of a media furore after a campaign initiated by the Stuckist art group as Ofili was on the board of Tate trustees at the time of the purchase. In 2006 the Charity Commission censured the Tate for the purchase, but did not revoke it.

Albert Oehlen is a German artist and musician. He lives and works in Bühler, Switzerland and Segovia, Spain.

Adrian Searle is an art critic for The Guardian, and has been writing for the paper since 1996. Previously he was a painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuckist demonstrations</span> Art group activities

Stuckist demonstrations since 2000 have been a key part of the Stuckist art group's activities and have succeeded in giving them a high-profile both in Britain and abroad. Their primary agenda is the promotion of figurative painting and opposition to conceptual art.

Brian Patrick Kennedy is an Irish-born art museum director who has worked in Ireland and Australia, and now lives and works in the United States. He was the director of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for 17 months, resigning December 31, 2020. He was the director of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio from 2010 to 2019. He was the director of the Hood Museum of Art from 2005 to 2010, and the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra) from 1997 to 2004.

<i>The Holy Virgin Mary</i> Painting by Chris Ofili

The Holy Virgin Mary is a mixed media painting created by Chris Ofili in 1996 that utilizes elephant dung and pornographic images. It was one of the works included in the Sensation exhibition in London, Berlin and New York in 1997–2000. The subject of the work, and its execution, caused considerable controversy in New York, with Rudolph Giuliani – then Mayor of New York City – describing Ofili's work as "sick". In 1998, Ofili was the first black artist to be awarded the Turner Prize. The painting was sold for £2.9 million in June 2015, and was gifted to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2018.

<i>Myra</i> (painting) Painting by Marcus Harvey

Myra is a 1995 large painting which is a reproduction of the mugshot of Myra Hindley shortly after she was arrested for her participation in the Moors murders and was created by Marcus Harvey in 1995. It was displayed at the Sensation exhibition of Young British Artists at the Royal Academy of Art in London from 8 September to 28 December 1997.

<i>No Woman No Cry</i> (painting) 1998 painting by Chris Ofili

No Woman No Cry is a 1998 painting created by Chris Ofili in 1998. It was one of the works included in the exhibition which won him the Turner Prize that year. The Financial Times has described it as "his masterpiece".

Lisa Brice is a South African painter and visual artist from Cape Town. She lives in London and cites some of her influences as her experiences growing up in South Africa during a time of political upheaval, and from time spent living and working in Trinidad.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Calvin Tomkins (6 October 2014), "Into the Unknown: Chris Ofili returns to New York with a major retrospective", The New Yorker .
  2. ↑ "Ofili, Chris, b.1968". Art UK. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  3. ↑ Chris Ofili Brief biography on ham. Retrieval Date: 26 July 2007.
  4. ↑ "AN INTERVIEW WITH CHARLIE DARK OF ATTICA BLUES". Mo Wax Please. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  5. ↑ Roberta Smith (30 October 2014), "Medium and Message, Both Unsettling: ‘Chris Ofili: Night and Day,’ a Survey at the New Museum", The New York Times .
  6. ↑ Michael Kimmelman (8 May 2005), "Wake Up. Wash Face. Do Routine. Now Paint", The New York Times.
  7. 1 2 Carol Vogel (5 May 2005), "An Artist's Gallery of Ideas: Chris Ofili's Watercolors", The New York Times.
  8. ↑ The Independent, 27 February 2000
  9. ↑ Free stuff Archived 24 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine by James Cowdery, 22 September 2005.
  10. ↑ www.absoluto.de, martin weise //. "db artmag - all the news on Deutsche Bank Art / db artmag - alle Infos zur Kunst der Deutschen Bank". db-artmag.de. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  11. ↑ Ryder, Matthew (28 October 2014). "Chris Ofili's Blue Devils: between black men and the police". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  12. 1 2 "Chris Ofili: Night and Day". www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  13. ↑ "No. 61803". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2016. p. N9.
  14. ↑ Hicks, Amber (23 October 2018). "List of 100 most influential black people includes Meghan Markle for first time". mirror. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  15. ↑ Chris Ofili, Third Eye Vision (1999) Archived 6 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
  16. ↑ Michael Glover, "Shock and awe: The art of Chris Ofili", The Independent , 22 January 2010.
  17. ↑ Adrian Searle (25 January 2010), "Chris Ofili heads into the shadows", The Guardian .
  18. ↑ Will Bennett, "Elephant dung artist gives a little back", The Telegraph, 22 February 2002.
  19. ↑ Robert Ayers (20 November 2007), Red Grooms's Chris Ofili Drawing, ARTINFO, retrieved 17 April 2008
  20. ↑ Gabriella Coslovich (14 April 2007), The Collector, The Age, archived from the original on 10 July 2012, retrieved 24 December 2010
  21. ↑ "Giuliani vs. the Virgin". The New Yorker. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  22. ↑ Charlotte Higgins, "How the Tate broke the law", The Guardian, 19 July 2006.
  23. ↑ Kelly Crow (1 July 2010), "Christie's Sells Warhol 'Silver Liz' for GBP 6.8 Million", The Wall Street Journal .
  24. ↑ Katya Kazakina (30 June 2015), Ofili’s Madonna Sets Record at Christie’s $150.3 Million Sale, Bloomberg Business .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.