CHRISOFILI(b. 1968)AFRODIZZIAsigned, titled and dated "'AFRODIZZIA' 1996 CHRIS OFILI" on the stretcher bar paper collage, oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, map pins and elephant dung on linen96 x 72 in. (243.8 x 182.9 cm)executed in 1996Provenance
Victoria Miro Gallery, LONDONExhibited
LONDON, Serpentine Gallery, September 30-December 5, 1998 Southhampton City Gallery, April 9-May 31, 1999 CHRIS OFILI (illustrated)
LONDON, Royal Academy of Arts, September 18-December 28, 1997,
BERLIN, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, September 30, 1998-January 17, 1999 and NEW YORK, Brooklyn Museum of Art, October 2, 1999-January 9, 2000,
SENSATION: YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS FROM THE SAATCHI COLLECTION, p. 130, no. 69 (illustrated)
LIVERPOOL,Tate Gallery Liverpool, REMIX: CONTEMPORARY ART & POP, May 4-August 26, 2002Literature
A. Vinnicombe and R. Williams, eds., SENSATION, YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS FROM THE SAATCHI COLLECTION, LONDON, 1997, p. 130, no. 69 (illustrated)
G. Corrin and G. Wursdale, CHRIS OFILI, LONDON, 1998 (illustrated)
R. Timms, A. Bradleyand and V.Hayward, YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS: THE SAATCHI DECADE, LONDON, 1997, p. 397 (illustrated)
F. Rich, "Pull the Plug on Brooklyn," THE NEW YORK TIMES, October 9, 1999, p. 17
S. Wallis, ed., REMIX: CONTEMPORARY ART & POP, LONDON, 2002
D. Kunitz, "True 'Sensation'," SALON.COM, October 2, 1999, n.p. A. Grossman, "Blasphemy, Pornography, Dung: Sensation," THE DARTMOUTH REVIEW, October 12, 1999
C. Fusco, "Captain Shit and Other Allegories of Black Stardom: the Work of Chris Ofili," NKA: JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICA ART (U.S.A.), Spring-Summer 1999, no. 10, pp. 40-45THE CULT OF THE CONTEMPORARY ARTIST CONTINUES TO BE PROMINENT, AND OFILI HAS, IN PART BY HIS OWN DESIGN, ADOPTED CERTAIN POSITIONS CORRESPONDENT WITH A FACILE VIEW OF BLACK CULTURE, PLAYING WITH IDENTITIES BUT ALSO CONTORTING THE WAY IN WHICH WE MIGHT READ THEM"
(G. Worsdaletakenfrom L.G. Corrin and G. Worsdale, CHRIS OFILI, LONDON, p. 1).

Having emerged from the Young British Artist's (YBA) movement of the late 20TH Century, Chris Ofili has succeeded in firmly entrenching himself in the annals of Art History. Winning The Turner Prize in 1998 cemented his position within the Contemporary artworld as an individual with recognizable talent and longevity–not simply someone who was popular for the moment (a flash in the pan). His unique manipulation and use of media, coupled with his multi-layered references to contemporary urban culture and awareness of the history of art, have resulted in the creation of an impressive oeuvre that continues to astound and awe the viewing public.

"Ofili has allowed his personality and, by association, his work to be related to a number of notional personae each based on stereotypical notions of the black male, inevitably generalised [sic] and therefore easily disseminated (ibid.). His canvases reflect an eagerness to embrace the mythic imaginativeness of black popular culture [African, Afro-British and African-American] while adding to a vocabulary of painterly invention that owes much to color-based abstraction as to any discernible canon of figure-based painting" (Dan Cameron taken from MONUMENT TO NOW: THE DAKIS JOANNOU COLLECTION, ATHENS, pp. 348-349). Ofili has explained that the black artist is fated to be seen as the voodoo king, the voodoo queen, the witch doctor, the drug dealer, the Magicien de la terre, the exotic and he has decided to adopt particular traits from these caricatures in order to transgress and destabilize politically correct optimism (Wordsdale, ibid.). He expounds on this notion "My Project is not a PC project…It allows you to laugh about issues that are potentially serious" (BBC News, Entertainment, December 1, 1998).

In 1997, the controversial SENSATION exhibition embarked on it's journey to infamy at London's Royal Academy of Arts. By the time it reached New York's Brooklyn Museum of Art, the exhibition had garnered international acclaim and criticism. Approximately seven of his paintings were exhibited; the present lot included.

AFRODIZZIA is a wildly energetic painting whose visually charged composition explores and challenges contemporary black experience. The surface is collaged with hundreds of tiny heads of figures with Afros–a hairstyle that reached its peak of popularity in the 1970s and became a pop cultural icon within the black community. The serpentine rows and rambling lines of heads and color cause one to feel as if there is a specific structure to this arrangement. Translucent pools of resin indiscriminately bleed together, partially obscuring some of the heads and swirling lines of color, creating areas of psychedelic almost hypnotic color fields. Through this mesmerizing miasma of glitter oil paint and resin, some of the collaged heads seem to be singled out, distinguished by specific characteristics that reference popular black culture; most notably the figure in the lower register of the composition with the word "Respect" shaved into the back of his head. "Each material and technical option is taken in the service of the artist's aim of 'getting in contact with the beautiful'" (Worsdale, p. 2).

Within the composition AFRODIZZIA, Ofili has also applied what have come to be his trademark, balls of elephant dung. The painting itself rests atop two balls of dung that have been decorated with colored map pins arranged in shapes that compliment compositional elements present in the canvas. Six additional dung balls are affixed to the surface of the painting and five of them have the names of individuals who are of general black cultural importance spelled out with colored map pins: Miles Davis, Cassius Clay, Tito Jackson, Diana Ross and James Brown. The incorporation of these figures into paintings is not a new concept. In fact it would seem that the very act of recording the memory of famous black cultural icons is itself an homage to one of the artist that played an important role in influencing Ofili's artistic style; Jean-Michel Basquiat. Just as Basquiat had done, Ofili's AFRODIZZIA also captures the energy and excitement of his musical influences (some of which he name-checks in the composition as did Basquiat) while simultaneously paying homage to them and their cultural significance.

Ofili has explained that the origins of this work are complex and varied. Outside of their obvious references to the iconography of popular black culture and his incorporation of out of the ordinary materials, Chris Ofili's paintings are about Beauty. Experimenting and working with materials that lie outside of the confines of traditional oil painting-introducing material such as elephant dung–results in paintings that are not only objects but labors of love. "Within the complexity of his own experience, he has developed a disaffirming vision which has enabled him to distinguish the beauty of that which is objectionable, the sophistication of that which is kitsch and the gravity in that which is laughable…Ofili's accomplishment is that he continues these deliberations which are manifested within and ever more sophisticated approach to painting and is still unswerving in its respect for the decorative beauty that he holds so dear" (Worsdale, p. 10).

The strong bonds to his religious and cultural backgrounds are undeniable. However, Ofili's ideals and beliefs are executed in a manner that transcends the boundaries of certain religious, ethnic and cultural aesthetics. These concepts being blended and blurred in very much the same way that he paints.