Ovid Actaeon 2012

Curator: This acrylic on canvas piece is called "Ovid Actaeon" and it was painted by Chris Ofili in 2012. Editor: It strikes me as incredibly graphic, almost a Pop-Art rendering of a classical scene, using this strident yellow against the dark purple background. Curator: The subject matter does echo that classical tradition. Actaeon, in Greek mythology, was a hunter who, after seeing the goddess Diana bathing, was turned into a stag and killed by his own hounds. Ofili plays with this dramatic narrative, transforming it into a symbolic moment of transformation. Editor: Interesting—look at the way the figures are flattened, the bare minimum of modeling giving them an almost archetypal quality. I wonder about the chromatic selection: that particular yellow flirts with both sunlight and decay, like something being illuminated and simultaneously rotting from the inside out. Curator: Perhaps. It’s worth noting the painting’s concern with metamorphosis— Actaeon’s literal transformation, but also the suggestive interplay between figures. The flautist and the bathing figure, locked into a choreography that is a shared experience of the metamorphosis, the sound waves and perhaps scent from the ground becoming visually embodied. Editor: I suppose it pushes toward something universal about perception and violence, framed in this almost unsettlingly clean style. Though you do feel like these bodies could collapse at any second given how little they are attached to the solid paint-matter behind. It doesn't resolve easily, which, formally, is quite compelling. Curator: The enduring power of myths lies in their ability to shapeshift across centuries and cultures, to be repeatedly re-imagined and adapted to fit changing contexts. This piece definitely speaks to how potent these archetypes remain in our collective subconscious. Editor: It is a compelling interplay between immediacy and depth that leaves lingering visual echo in the mind's eye.