What unusual material does the British artist Chris Ofili often incorporate into his paintings?



Contemporary painter Chris Ofili is known for his expressive, figurative paintings, which incorporate inventive combinations of material including glitter, resin, found photographs, even animal dung.

What is Chris Ofili inspired by?

Ofili was also heavily inspired by music, particularly hip hop and also jazz. He saw these types of music as celebrations of Black culture, saying: ‘I wanted to paint things that would feel like that music’. Ofili would sometimes cut out images of Black music stars from magazines and use them in his paintings.

Why does Chris Ofili use elephant dung?

YES, IT’S ELEPHANT POO
Ofili simply wanted to bring a ubiquitous part of the African landscape back to England with him, to incorporate into his artwork. (Later, he used dung from the elephant pen at a London zoo.)

What controversial materials did Chris Ofili include in his piece The Holy Virgin Mary 1996 )?





Ofili’s oeuvre portrays Mary wearing a blue cape parted to reveal a breast made of dried and varnished elephant dung. Similar to Old Master paintings, Mary is surrounded by angels—only here they are drawn in the shape of genitalia. And the 8-foot-high canvas is propped on two lumps of dried dung.