Chris Ofili At Tate Britain
A major new exhibition at Tate Britain, starting on 27th January and running until 16th May, will give a fascinating opportunity to see the spectacular, moving and sometimes controversial work of Turner prize winning artist Chris Ofili.
Ofili stands out amongst the Modern British Artist movement in making his Nigerian roots central to his depiction of modern England. There is a remarkable vibrancy to his work, conveyed through the use of vivid colours and unusual materials, that fuses traditional aesthetic values with echoes of African art and the hip-hop beats found in London side streets.
Ofili sprang to public recognition in 1998 when he won the Turner Prize but, as often happens with victors in this field, public opprobrium followed in equal measure. The mass media focused on Ofili’s use of elephant dung in his artworks and some uninformed detractors claim that he splatters this dung onto his work. In truth, however, Ofili carefully places the dung onto his work, often varnished and decorated, as part of a collage effect with paints, resins and glitter.
Chris Ofili became an international cause celebre in 1999 when his work ’The Holy Virgin Mary’ was exhibited in The Brooklyn Museum Of Art. This work depicted a black Madonna surrounded by scenes from blaxploitation movies and pornographic magazines. Then mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, a man with very conservative views of art, tried to ban the exhibition that featured the painting and sued the gallery.
What is undeniable to all but his staunchest detractors however is that Chris Ofili creates stunningly beautiful art, reminiscent in some senses with Gustav Klimt or with the experimental colouration of artists such as Franz Marc.
The exhibition will showcase Ofili’s works from 1992 until 2008 and will show the progression that his art has made. In my opinion, Ofili is the most exuberant and talented British artist today and I have no doubt that Tate Britain’s exhibition will be a huge success in cementing the artistic reputation of Ofili as well as negating some of the unfair criticism that has come his way.
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