Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier
403
Date
2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Major
Art History
Concentration
General Art History
Committee Chair
Earnestine Jenkins
Committee Member
Todd Richardson
Committee Member
Fred Albertson
Abstract
Chris Ofili's "The Holy Virgin Mary," the Black Female Form, and the Problem of Postmodern Scholarship, explores the problems of postmodern scholarship in the visual arts by analyzing "The Holy Virgin Mary" by Chris Ofili and the circumstances involving the Sensation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1999. I placeOfili's work in context and make the claim that Ofili's work is largely an examination of his dual identities as a Catholic and person of African descent. I explore the larger cultural context by examining the black female figure in Ofili's work and in other postmodern artists dealing with similar themes. In this thesis, I argue that postmodern scholarship of African Diaspora artists too often focuses merely on the biographical information of the artists as a shallow celebration of multiculturalism and ignores the work and its context. In this thesis I present a more in-depth analysis of "The Holy Virgin Mary" and attempt to offer solutions to the problem of postmodern scholarship.
Library Comment
Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.
Recommended Citation
Cook, Nancy Ellen, "Chris Ofili's, "The Holy Virgin Mary", the Black Female Form, and the Problem of Postmodern Scholarship" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 316.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd/316
Comments
Data is provided by the student.