Beschreibung:

Chris Ofili Pramnian Odyssey 2 2003-11 distressed dyed leather, sueded leather and gold leaf collage on board 183.1 x 121.5 x 5.2 cm. (72 1/8 x 47 7/8 x 2 in.) Stamped with the artist's monogram lower right.
Provenance Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin Private Collection, London Acquired from the above by the present owner Catalogue Essay “I’m communicating something to do with the way I look at the world. It’s exciting for me that things can have an apparent narrative with many potential narratives within it. I have my working title, my reading, but then there are many options for how to interpret something.” CHRIS OFILI Sensual, evocative and alluring, Pramnian Odyssey 2, 2003-11, is exemplary of the rhythmic patterning of painterly and cultural facets that is inherent in Chris Ofili’s oeuvre. Executed in 2003, it demonstrates the artist’s exploration and desire to fuse the binary oppositions that constitute these elements – the sacred and profane,the personal and political, and features from high culture and low culture. Artfully incorporating this into his work, the resulting piece is a dynamic reflection on notions of beauty, whilst simultaneously hinting at aspects of black history, culture and exoticism. Successfully displaying the artist’s linear grace, the present lot is textured, radiant, rich and absorbing, emblazoned with a near-total environment of red, black, and green. These precise colours act as political signifers for Ofili, and are rooted in the cultural symbolism associated with the Black Nationalist movements, which extendedfrom the pre-World War II era through to the Black Power group of the sixties. Alluding to Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A.)− a return-to-Africa political movement of the 1920’s− the colours are linked with Garvey’s attempt to posit a radical and alternative historical memory for African American and African Caribbean communities based on a racial connection to Africa. The movement investigated the myth of national origin and the foundation of nationalism− concepts that serve as a recurring, underlying concern in Ofili’s artwork. Marcus Garvey’s explorations undoubtedly goes hand in hand with Ofili’s preoccupation with the idea of ‘looking black’, which is something the artist claims “has to do with the work taking things from black culture and repositioning, re-presenting and reshaping them.” The artist explains that, “[t]hrough this process, the origin of the idea can disappear – for example, with the red, black and green paintings, the specific choice of colours were linked to Marcus Garvey’s expression of the need to return to Africa.” (Chris Ofili in conversation with Thelma Golden, p.246, Chris Ofili Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., USA, 2009.) Large and imposing, Pramnian Odyssey 2, dominates the space of the viewer, confronting us with the very paradigms that seek to confront the most dogmatic preconceptions of black culture, or the construction of ‘blackness’. Whilst comprising of more simplified forms than in his previous works, the black nude female figures are nonetheless just as dramatic, expansive and romantic, standing as clear references to sensuality and sexuality. Ofili places an astute emphasis on the beauty of the female body, attempting to describe it with an exploration of line, form and shape– a focus which recalls that seen in Gauguin’s Polynesian paintings, and Picasso in his depiction of five female nudes in his 1907 painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Ofili, however, places particular prominence on the significance of a black subject: an aspect which speaks to the artist’s endeavour “to make paintings that would look like they were black paintings– ‘Afro’ paintings” (ibid, p. 248). Looking at the way the (black) female form has been dealt with in the past, the artist essentially works to insert something into a historic lineage of imagery, hinging on several historical and conceptual issues, such as rendering visible that which is invisible, and the seeking of social redress. In this way, the present lot– vibrant, technically complex, and meticulously executed– is testament to the legacies of Jean-Michel-Basquiat and David Ha