The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of May 10, 2024
Blue Bathers
2014
(British, b. 1968)
Overall: 278.3 x 200.6 x 4.2 cm (109 9/16 x 79 x 1 5/8 in.)
Scott Mueller Collection 35.2014
Location: not on view
Description
After moving from London to Trinidad in 2005, Chris Ofili noted the “strong presence” of night in his new home, and observed a luminous quality to the darkness there, due to Trinidad’s proximity to the equator. Blue Bathers belongs to a series of paintings composed entirely of shades of dark blue that reflect these perceptions. The work’s barely visible imagery suggests a wide range of possible meanings. The artist himself associates the hues in this painting with the blue devil, a character in Trinidadian folklore, as well as “boys in blue,” slang for British police, and the richness of blues music. Together, these associations comprise what the artist describes as his “feeling for a color.”- Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (October 13, 2023-April 8, 2024).Contemporary Art Rotation - Spring 2022. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 1-September 25, 2022).Blue Black. Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO (organizer) (June 9-October 7, 2017).
- {{cite web|title=Blue Bathers|url=false|author=Chris Ofili|year=2014|access-date=10 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/35.2014