Less Elephant Dung in New Show by Chris Ofili at Tate Britain
LONDON (REUTERS).- He is best known for working
with elephant dung, but British artist Chris Ofili has taken a more painterly
turn since his move from London to Trinidad five years ago. A mid-career
retrospective at Tate Britain in London covers the first two
decades of the 41-year-old, Turner Prize-winning artist’s work, and one third of
the 45 or so paintings on display have not been seen in Britain before.
The earliest paintings date from 1993, a year after he travelled to Zimbabwe
where he first thought of applying elephant dung to the canvas. So the first
room of the seven-room show, which opens on January 27 until May 16, is
dominated by titles such as “Shithead,” “Painting with Shit on it” and
“Spaceshit.”