“I was drawn to (William) Blake’s image first as a watercolour…At the same time I was interested in how Snoop Dogg could sing quite vulgar lyrics with a sweet, smooth West Coast voice, in the coming together of the rough and the smooth. I was curious about trying to make older ideas contemporary and new, and somehow have a relationship to hip hop culture.” – Chris Ofili, in ‘Ekow Eshun interviews Chris Ofili’ from the Chris Ofili exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain 2010
“I like (hip hop’s) cut-and-paste attitude. You can often hear where one joint ends and another begins, which is something I try to make apparent in my work so you can see how things are made. Hip Hop takes existing beats, restructures them, and injects the individual in the form of a rap. You might not understand the lyrics but you always recognise the voice of a particular rapper.” – Chris Ofili, in Donna De Salvo, ‘My Pop: Chris Ofili’, Artforum October 2004
27 January will see the opening of a major new exhibition of work by Manchester born Nigerian artist, Chris Ofili, at Tate Britain. The exhibition will bring together approximately 45 paintings from the mid 1990s onwards, including No Woman No Cry - the piece he created in the aftermath of the unsolved Stephen Lawrence murder in London.
To celebrate the opening of the exhibition and to make the works open to all, Tate Britain has created a special youth ticket: anyone under the age of 26 can enter the exhibition for £5 – usual price is £10 full price and £8.50 for concessions. Just bring along some ID to get this special offer.
Chris Ofili is without a doubt one of the UK’s most famous homegrown black artists. Having won the Turner Prize in 1998 aged 30, he now resides in Trinidad. Many of his works have been inspired by growing up in Manchester in the 1980’s, religious viewpoints and his love of Hip Hop Culture, especially bands such as Public Enemy, KRS 1 and Eric B & Rakim.
Chris’s works show many parallels with Hip Hop and sampling culture, remixing and re-mastering modern inspirations from art and music to create his own unique takes. He draws on his surroundings to inform his art and commentates on the state of play, exploring areas such as racism, ethnicity and identity.
Lyrical content is very important within Chris’s work and he has borrowed Hip Hop titles in his works and exhibitions e.g. Devils Pie by D’Angelo, The Healer by Erykah Badu and Pimpin aint Easy by Big Daddy Kane.
Chris Ofili’s top 14 influential Hip Hop releases (not in order of preference):
1. Notorious BIG – 10 Crack Commandments 2. Common – Heaven somewhere 3. Method Man – Bring the pain 4. Public Enemy – Public Enemy number 1 5. Erykah Badu – The Healer 6. Snoop Dogg – Gin & Juice 7. Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M 8. Jay-Z - Blueprint 9. A Tribe Called Quest – The low end theory 10. The Roots – Clones 11. NAS – Illmatic 12. Mos Def - Black on both sides 13. Talib Kweli – Reflection eternal 14. Dizzee Rascal - Jezebel
Address: Tate Britain, Level 2 Galleries, Millbank Dates: 27 January – 16 May 2010 Opening Times: 10.00 to 17.55 and 22.00 the first Friday of every month Ticket Price: Over 26 £10 / Under 26 £5 with I-D Nearest Tube: Pimlico
