Day #6 - Art for Lent: Chris Ofili's "The Holy Virgin Mary" #Lent2016

ART + RELIGION
By Aaron Rosen

"The Holy Virgin Mary" (1996) by Chris Ofili | UK. Acrylic, oil, polyester resin, paper collage, glitter, map pins, and elephant dung on linen (96 x 72 in.)

After painting The Holy Virgin Mary (1996), [Chris] Ofili returned to the image ot the Madonna in No Woman, No Cry (1998). Channelling the iconography of Pieta, in which Mary grieves for her deceases son, Ofili evolked the tragic murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence at a London bus stop in 1993, and his mother Doreen's campaign for justice. We look at more of Ofili's wok in Chapter 10. [page 16]

Lent is the annual Christian preparation for Easter. "Today's Art for Lent2016" features artworks that illustrate the Christian "Battle between Carnival and Lent."