{"id":69830,"date":"2025-08-14T20:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69830\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T20:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:08:09","slug":"chris-ofili-painting-blossom-expected-to-fetch-up-to-1-5m-at-auction-chris-ofili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/69830\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Ofili painting Blossom expected to fetch up to \u00a31.5m at auction | Chris Ofili"},"content":{"rendered":"

A key work by the Turner prize-winning British artist Chris Ofili<\/a> featuring his signature use of elephant dung is to be put up for auction for the first time at Christie\u2019s in October.<\/p>\n

Blossom (1997), a portrait created a year before Ofili became the first black artist to win the Turner prize in 1998, is estimated to sell for \u00a31m to \u00a31.5m. The piece blends sacred iconography with popular culture and African symbolism, using Ofili\u2019s signature materials of glitter, resin and elephant dung.<\/p>\n

Tessa Lord, the head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie\u2019s London, which is selling the work on 15 October, said: \u201cThis is one of the most exciting paintings that I\u2019ve worked with in a long time. Ofili\u2019s works are large-scale works that are rare to auction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ofili\u2019s painting will come under the hammer alongside four works by the Scottish painter Peter Doig, which will also be offered at auction for the first time: Ski Jacket, Country Rock, Concrete Cabin and Yara. Other notable works in the collection include 1981-82 by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Hon (She) by the Swedish artist Karin Mamma Andersson.<\/p>\n

Blossom: \u2018One of the most exciting paintings I\u2019ve worked with in a long time,\u2019 said Tessa Lord of Christie\u2019s. Photograph: Courtesy David Zwirner<\/p>\n

Ofili, who was born in Manchester and is of Nigerian descent, studied at the Chelsea College of Arts and the Royal College of Art<\/a>. In 2003, Ofili represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. He is based between London, New York and Trinidad.<\/p>\n

Blossom was exhibited in 2010 as part of Ofili\u2019s mid-career retrospective at Tate Britain, the most extensive display of his work to date. It was also included in the 2014-15 survey at the New Museum in New York.<\/p>\n

The painting draws upon traditional ideas of the mother and child, depicting a woman with an exposed breast, crowned by an orange flower placed in her afro. On the left-hand side, the painting\u2019s title, Blossom, is vertically spelled out, inscribed into spheres of elephant dung.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe surface is extraordinary,\u201d said Lord. \u201cIt\u2019s got these almost pointillist textured dots all over the surface and resin that creates these layers that are really, in person, quite beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The piece was from an important year in the artist\u2019s career, said Lord. Ofili\u2019s 1997 solo exhibition, which showcased in the Southampton City Art Gallery, the Serpentine Gallery in London and the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, \u201ccemented his nomination on to the Turner prize in 1998, which he won\u201d.<\/p>\n

As well as being the first black artist to win the prize, Ofili was the first painter in more than a decade to win the award. \u201cPreviously it had been quite conceptual, so Ofili really represents the strength of British painting in that 90s, early 2000s moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collection is owned by Ole Faarup, a late Danish design entrepreneur and philanthropist who acquired Blossom in 1997. The entire collection was assembled over a period of 50 years. All proceeds will go to the Ole Faarup Art Foundation, which aims to support young Danish and international artists by placing their works in museums around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe masterpieces in the collection are the works by two British artists,\u201d said Lord. Ofili and Doig had a \u201cpersonal connection\u201d. Having first met as students at Chelsea College of Arts, Doig would later stay with Ofili in Trinidad in the early 2000s, an experience that inspired the work Yara, which is up for auction in the collection.<\/p>\n

Ofili\u2019s style is often considered \u201cpunk art\u201d and is influenced by artists such as Basquiat and Philip Guston. His work has garnered attention for its brazenness and provocation, particularly for the frequent use of elephant dung and pornographic imagery.<\/p>\n

His painting The Holy Virgin Mary attracted controversy in 1998 for its depiction of a Black Madonna surrounded by images from blaxploitation films and pornographic magazines. It was sold for \u00a32.9m at Christie\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really haven\u2019t had something like this or a work of this quality since 2015 when we sold The Holy Virgin Mary,\u201d said Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A key work by the Turner prize-winning British artist Chris Ofili featuring his signature use of elephant dung…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-69830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}