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Lot Essay
Thelma Golden: 'In terms of composition, this couple is a development. Did you see this evolution coming when you made the first group of paintings?'
Chris Ofili: 'This group of paintings came around really quickly. You'll see that the idea for them has been around for a long time if you pick through the threads of my work. But I never really dealt with two people together-a couple. It's always been single heads, whole bodies, parts of bodies, and this is the first time I really need to try to put two people together and see if that can work. I'd done that a bit with the watercolours, in terms of thinking about a couple, but I always made the man and the woman separate on seperate leaves of paper. So this was a big step in a sense, putting the two of them together. Once I did it with the painting Afromantics, 2002, I thought 'Hey, this is incredible, Hey, I can do it.' Funny enough, though, when I am drawing them the two people become one, like a single body.'
(Chris Ofili and Thelma Golden in conversation, reproduced in Chris Ofili within reach exh. cat., British Pavilion 50th Venice Biennale, June-November 2003).
Chris Ofili: 'This group of paintings came around really quickly. You'll see that the idea for them has been around for a long time if you pick through the threads of my work. But I never really dealt with two people together-a couple. It's always been single heads, whole bodies, parts of bodies, and this is the first time I really need to try to put two people together and see if that can work. I'd done that a bit with the watercolours, in terms of thinking about a couple, but I always made the man and the woman separate on seperate leaves of paper. So this was a big step in a sense, putting the two of them together. Once I did it with the painting Afromantics, 2002, I thought 'Hey, this is incredible, Hey, I can do it.' Funny enough, though, when I am drawing them the two people become one, like a single body.'
(Chris Ofili and Thelma Golden in conversation, reproduced in Chris Ofili within reach exh. cat., British Pavilion 50th Venice Biennale, June-November 2003).