|
International |
 |
|
EVERYONE WANTS AN OFILI
|
|
Are we surprised?Not likely...we predicted the art market would fall in love with him back in September 1999 when New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's fuss over Chris Ofili's elephant dung painting of a black madonna drew much more attention to the artist than winning the Turner Prize did. Giuliani's catch phrase "sick art" was solid gold for Ofili and the galleries that represent him. The New York gallery Gavin Brown's Enterprise were able to sell out their entire exhibition of Ofili's recent works before they opened 'Chris Ofili Afrobiotics' on October 16th 1999. By then the Giuliani debacle had reached maximum media exposure and SENSATION was in its third successful week at The Brooklyn Museum. Apart from the obvious kudos being the 1998 Turner Prize winner carried it was really the Saatchi Collection exhibition that inflated the value of Ofili's works overnight. Museums and collectors lined up to buy Ofili's "I'm black and british" youth culture paintings at $45,000 each all adorned with the trademark elephant dung - but with only five such paintings available in 'Afrobiotics' collectors missed out and Gavin Brown gave priority to five american museums. Six water-colours also sold out before Gavin Brown could get them on his gallery walls, for $1,500 each. Once again, that canny Saatchi has picked an artist that can make him a lot of money. We can only speculate at the current market value of the now infamous 'Holy Virgin Mary' which Saatchi owns. Victoria Miro the Cork Street gallery in London that represents Ofili also has a waiting list of customers ready to buy Ofili's work. No doubt we will now see a spate of Ofili impersonators hoping to fill the gap in the market. City zoos may experience an increase in visitor numbers as wannabe artists search the animal pits for diverse species of dung to smear their canvases with.
© ARTnewsroom.com
|
|
Best
of the Web
|
______________________ |
