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Lot Essay
'While Ofili's more recent paintings use the same stylistic components as the earlier work, they no longer immerse the viewer in an immeasurably extended visual space. Ego boundaries are more defined in works like Trump, (1998), and Dreams, (1998). Both of these paintings place the viewer in a centralized relation to the black dotted overlay of their central motifs, the ace of spades in Trump, the dreaming woman in Dreams'
(M. Walsh, Chris Ofili, exh. cat., Serpentine Gallery, London 1998).
With its central majestic image of the Ace of Spades encircled by her courtiers, glowing with iridescent layers of vibrant colour, glitter, clear resin and elephant dung, Chris Ofili's Trump is a complex painting, whoseelaborate and intricately worked surface belies a deeply reflective comment on the nature of modern cultural identity. Completed in 1998, the year he won the Turner Prize, Trump was part of a group of landmark works such as No Woman, No Cry and The Adoration of Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black All Stars, that form the backbone of his career which was spent questioning notions of race and beauty in modern society. The resulting works are rich in both visual and cultural symbolism, works that question perceived norms as well as being objects of great aesthetic beauty in their own right. Here the obvious direct source is double entendre of the Trump. The dominance of the ace of spades motif incorporates Ofili's interest in the political as well as the aesthetic as the spadille is a highly symbolic and evocative emblem that has a number of important cultural references. In English-speaking countries the insignia is traditionally regarded as the highest card in a deck of playing cards, the trump card, and thereby represents good luck. But perhaps most importantly for Ofili is the term 'spade' as used in the context of race. Ever since the development of the colloquial term 'as black as the ace of spades', the word 'spade' has come to have negative racial connotations and was regularly used as a term of abuse.
In keeping with many of Ofili's most iconic works Trump is built up from a series of painted layers alternated with coatings of clear resin and interspersed with expanses of glitter. These planes of colour and texture are then topped with a triumphant concluding layer in which Ofili applies a luxurious liquescent painted dots, which harden to form a surface tapestry of small, black, almost onyx-like, beads. Surrounded by a bright halo of lavish pink and golden yellow, the main image of the work is a large 'ace of spades' from the centre of which emerges the face of a beautiful woman, complete with resplendent red lips and sultry, almost feline-like, eyes. Complementing this central feature is a series of smaller ace of spades motifs that radiate out from the heart of the work. Each of these smaller collaged 'spades' features another female face in miniature, gazing out from the surface of the painting. Supporting the canvas and attached to the surface of the painting are some of Ofili's signature balls of elephant dung. An important motif in his work ever since his visit to Zimbabwe on a British Council funded trip in 1992, Ofili has combined his Western painting techniques with the raw energy of the natural landscape to produce works that bring together two invigorating artistic traditions. This intricate and intensive method of building up the surface of the painting to produce in images of shimmering beauty and remarkable physical depth is one of the key signatures of Ofili's intoxicating work.
Cultural identity is a theme that runs through the very heart of Ofili's work from this period. Born in 1968 to Nigerian parents, the artist spent much of his youth being raised in an England that was still coming to terms with its relatively new multi-cultural identity that ensued from its post-colonial past. Much of the black cultural identity that Ofili was exposed to growing up was influenced by the 'Blaxploitation' films of the 1970s, such as the hugely popular Super Fly released in 1972. Whilst not parodying these films directly, Trump does exude the same bold energy and highly stylised iconography that characterised this particular genre of filmmaking. Although created over twenty years after the heyday of the genre, Ofili allows himself to draw on these seemingly outdated and stereotypical sources to provide him with the necessary means to project his view of the world onto the canvases, 'My project is not a PC project. That's my direct link to blaxploitation. I'm trying to make things you can laugh at. It allows you to laugh about issues that are potentially serious. There are no rules' (C. Ofili quoted in J. Nesbitt, 'Beginnings', Chris Ofili, London, 2010, p. 15).
1998 was a pivotal year for Ofili and his growing reputation was confirmed by an exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery which then travelled to Manchester's Whitworth Gallery. The popular critical reception of this show was one of the factors, which contributed to his nomination for the Turner Prize later that year. Along with Trump, Ofilipainted several other important works during 1998. The Adoration of Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black All Stars continues the artist's examination of the black cultural identity through the medium of popular culture, but perhaps the most iconic piece from that year also featured a female portrait, his poignant and powerfully moving No Woman, No Cry. The painting was executed as his reaction to the death of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager who was murdered by a gang of white youths and the bungled police response to his death. Now housed in the permanent collection of the Tate in London, this work propelled Ofili to a level of public recognition afforded to very few artists of his generation. Ofili's reputation as one of Europe's most exciting artists was cemented by his Turner Prize win, in the process becoming the first painter to receive the award since Howard Hodgkin in 1985 and the first black artist ever to win the prize.
Powerful as the themes in Ofili's paintings are, the underlying majesty of his works lies in his skills as a painter. In an age when contemporary art was dominated by conceptualism and video, Trump revels in his sheer delight in creating images by putting paint on canvas. His paintings are a Baroque-like celebration of texture and colour, whose richness is matched only by the intricacy of their execution. As Ofili has said of his pictures, 'I try to make [the painting] more and more beautiful, to decorateit and dress it up so that it is so irresistible, you just want to be in front of it' (C. Ofili, quoted in L. Macritchie, 'Ofili's Glittering Icons - Work of Chris Ofili at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York', in Art in America, January 2000).
(M. Walsh, Chris Ofili, exh. cat., Serpentine Gallery, London 1998).
With its central majestic image of the Ace of Spades encircled by her courtiers, glowing with iridescent layers of vibrant colour, glitter, clear resin and elephant dung, Chris Ofili's Trump is a complex painting, whoseelaborate and intricately worked surface belies a deeply reflective comment on the nature of modern cultural identity. Completed in 1998, the year he won the Turner Prize, Trump was part of a group of landmark works such as No Woman, No Cry and The Adoration of Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black All Stars, that form the backbone of his career which was spent questioning notions of race and beauty in modern society. The resulting works are rich in both visual and cultural symbolism, works that question perceived norms as well as being objects of great aesthetic beauty in their own right. Here the obvious direct source is double entendre of the Trump. The dominance of the ace of spades motif incorporates Ofili's interest in the political as well as the aesthetic as the spadille is a highly symbolic and evocative emblem that has a number of important cultural references. In English-speaking countries the insignia is traditionally regarded as the highest card in a deck of playing cards, the trump card, and thereby represents good luck. But perhaps most importantly for Ofili is the term 'spade' as used in the context of race. Ever since the development of the colloquial term 'as black as the ace of spades', the word 'spade' has come to have negative racial connotations and was regularly used as a term of abuse.
In keeping with many of Ofili's most iconic works Trump is built up from a series of painted layers alternated with coatings of clear resin and interspersed with expanses of glitter. These planes of colour and texture are then topped with a triumphant concluding layer in which Ofili applies a luxurious liquescent painted dots, which harden to form a surface tapestry of small, black, almost onyx-like, beads. Surrounded by a bright halo of lavish pink and golden yellow, the main image of the work is a large 'ace of spades' from the centre of which emerges the face of a beautiful woman, complete with resplendent red lips and sultry, almost feline-like, eyes. Complementing this central feature is a series of smaller ace of spades motifs that radiate out from the heart of the work. Each of these smaller collaged 'spades' features another female face in miniature, gazing out from the surface of the painting. Supporting the canvas and attached to the surface of the painting are some of Ofili's signature balls of elephant dung. An important motif in his work ever since his visit to Zimbabwe on a British Council funded trip in 1992, Ofili has combined his Western painting techniques with the raw energy of the natural landscape to produce works that bring together two invigorating artistic traditions. This intricate and intensive method of building up the surface of the painting to produce in images of shimmering beauty and remarkable physical depth is one of the key signatures of Ofili's intoxicating work.
Cultural identity is a theme that runs through the very heart of Ofili's work from this period. Born in 1968 to Nigerian parents, the artist spent much of his youth being raised in an England that was still coming to terms with its relatively new multi-cultural identity that ensued from its post-colonial past. Much of the black cultural identity that Ofili was exposed to growing up was influenced by the 'Blaxploitation' films of the 1970s, such as the hugely popular Super Fly released in 1972. Whilst not parodying these films directly, Trump does exude the same bold energy and highly stylised iconography that characterised this particular genre of filmmaking. Although created over twenty years after the heyday of the genre, Ofili allows himself to draw on these seemingly outdated and stereotypical sources to provide him with the necessary means to project his view of the world onto the canvases, 'My project is not a PC project. That's my direct link to blaxploitation. I'm trying to make things you can laugh at. It allows you to laugh about issues that are potentially serious. There are no rules' (C. Ofili quoted in J. Nesbitt, 'Beginnings', Chris Ofili, London, 2010, p. 15).
1998 was a pivotal year for Ofili and his growing reputation was confirmed by an exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery which then travelled to Manchester's Whitworth Gallery. The popular critical reception of this show was one of the factors, which contributed to his nomination for the Turner Prize later that year. Along with Trump, Ofilipainted several other important works during 1998. The Adoration of Captain Shit and the Legend of the Black All Stars continues the artist's examination of the black cultural identity through the medium of popular culture, but perhaps the most iconic piece from that year also featured a female portrait, his poignant and powerfully moving No Woman, No Cry. The painting was executed as his reaction to the death of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager who was murdered by a gang of white youths and the bungled police response to his death. Now housed in the permanent collection of the Tate in London, this work propelled Ofili to a level of public recognition afforded to very few artists of his generation. Ofili's reputation as one of Europe's most exciting artists was cemented by his Turner Prize win, in the process becoming the first painter to receive the award since Howard Hodgkin in 1985 and the first black artist ever to win the prize.
Powerful as the themes in Ofili's paintings are, the underlying majesty of his works lies in his skills as a painter. In an age when contemporary art was dominated by conceptualism and video, Trump revels in his sheer delight in creating images by putting paint on canvas. His paintings are a Baroque-like celebration of texture and colour, whose richness is matched only by the intricacy of their execution. As Ofili has said of his pictures, 'I try to make [the painting] more and more beautiful, to decorateit and dress it up so that it is so irresistible, you just want to be in front of it' (C. Ofili, quoted in L. Macritchie, 'Ofili's Glittering Icons - Work of Chris Ofili at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York', in Art in America, January 2000).