Controversial Art; The Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili
The controversial art that I have chosen is the holy Virgin Mary. The art was created in 1996 by Chris Ofili. It is an acrylic painting whose medium is oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, and map pins and elephant dung on linen. The art is one of the most controversial artists of the 20th century and caused heated debate and critics. The art depicts the Virgin Mary staring directly at the viewer with widely opened eyes and parted lips. She wears a blue gown that flows from her neck downwards, splitting at her check to reveal the cow dung that represents her breasts. The image is surrounded by collaged images of women’s buttocks. The two balls of dung representing the breasts are decorated in glitters. Also, the image of the Virgin Mary was from African American origin.
The art was controversial because, in the catholic religion, Mary was a virgin even when she bore Jesus Christ. The painting questioned this belief because by surrounding the Virgin Mary with pornographic images of women behind only brought out the Virgin Mary as a sexually charged woman who is controversial to the religious belief. Also, the representation of the Virgin Mary is deemed controversial because it went against traditions. From the image, it is clear that Chris put the Virgin Mary in the African American community, which was controversial because all biblical representations take up the whiteness representation. Through the art, Chris opened the possibility of a black Virgin Mary. He also ignited people to reconsider the information shared concerning the virgin who bore a savior because it was not realistic. The aesthetic value is created by the cow dung, which is efficient for sticking objects on the canvas, and also was a way of bringing the landscape is the painting. The art. The reminded people of the importance of art for decoration and virtual pleasure when people only focused on cerebral aesthetics. The paper hs never been censored by the government, rather only mayor Rudy Guiliani had threatened to close the city-funded constitution claiming that the art was a critic of the Christian religion. An elderly visitor covered the paint in white painting to desecrate it. Reflects the rigidity of human beings, where we automatically believe in a statement just because it existed in the past. Also, it depicted the racial stereotyping that occurs where we automatically assume that the people in the bible are whites. This art has helped me to be my eyes towards that statement.
This piece should be considered as an art. Art is defined by elements such as line, shape, color, texture, lines shapes, and value, regardless if it annoys a given group from the art, it is clear that the writer makes use of these elements while coming up with the painting. He uses a rough texture to bring out the realism in the painting. He also makes use of black color to place the virgin mary in the black community. he returned decoration and visual pleasure when the world viewed the world as aesthetics of postmodernism
Mayor Rudy Giuliani threatened to close the city-funded institution on the grounds that this artwork was offensive to religious viewers.
Chris Ofili said that the elephant dung was “it was a crass way of bringing the landscape into the painting,” his ability to place dung on paper and come up with such as art is an art by itself,
References
Khan Academy. (n.d). Chris Ofili, the Holy Virgin Mary. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/global-culture/concepts-in-art-1980-to-now/ritual-spirituality-and-transcendence/a/chris-ofili-the-holy-virgin-mary