The Holy Virgin Mary

Common card · No. 371635

The Holy Virgin Mary is a mixed media painting created by Chris Ofili in 1996 that utilizes elephant dung and naked imagery. It was one of the works included in the Sensation exhibition in London, Berlin and New York in 1997–2000. The subject of the work, and its execution, caused considerable controversy in New York, with Rudolph Giuliani – then Mayor of New York City – describing Ofili's work as "sick". In 1998, Ofili was the first black artist to be awarded the Turner Prize. The painting was sold for £2.9 million in June 2015, and was gifted to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2018. Chris Ofili’s use of elephant dung and cut-out images from pornographic magazines in the composition was widely interpreted by some religious groups as blasphemous and disrespectful. Catholic organizations in New York protested the exhibition of the work at the Brooklyn Museum in 1999, arguing that it constituted an attack on religious beliefs.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Brooklyn Museum, No restrictions