Toyin Ojih Odutola Follow They signed, titled and dated 'Ojih Odutola "THEY" 2015' on the reverse charcoal on paper 43.2 x 35.6 cm (17 x 14 in.) Executed in 2015.
Description Please note this lot is the property of a private individual. Provenance Jack Shainman Gallery, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited New York, Jack Shainman Gallery, Toyin Ojih Odutola: Of Context and Without, 11 December 2015 - 30 January 2016 Cincinnati, 21C Museum Hotel; Bentonville, 21C Museum Hotel, Seeing Now, April 2016 - January 2018 New York, The Kitchen, On Whiteness, 27 June - 3 August 2018 Catalogue Essay ‘What I really loved is that when you use black as a demarcating tool and replace it with white it suddenly makes things really, really slippery and people get uncomfortable because they can’t delineate anything… All of a sudden this idea of context is very suspect and the content becomes unreliable.’ – Toyin Ojih Odutola In They, executed in 2015, Toyin Ojih Odutola expands her progressive examination of the human form by toying with tonal variations and subtle delineation in her paired-back palette. Exquisitely executed in white charcoal on paper, the sitter’s back and hair emerges from the white ground as the viewer moves around the work. With the onlooker’s moving perspective, the light and dark areas shift and alter, unveiling the contours of the central figure. The work beautifully exemplifies the artist’s distinct exploration of skin and hair and showcases her mastery of mark-marking. Imbuing her unnamed subjects with an energetic vitality, the forms of her unknown sitters are layered through a stratum of charcoal strokes, showcasing her blocks of shading and adept use of materials. Included in Ojih Odutola’s solo exhibition Of Context and Without at Jack Shainman Gallery in 2015 to 2016, the artist’s work has been celebrated internationally and most notably at her first solo museum exhibition, To Wander Determined, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2017. Executed in a monochrome palette, the present work exposes the artifice of the artwork, unveiling Ojih Odutola’s painstaking application of line. ‘I want the marks to be the subject … In particular, I’m exposing my process but I am doing this because I want people to see what I see in the makings of these works that often doesn’t get shown in the final product. It’s like I’m welcoming them into my studio for a moment with each drawing’ (the artist, quoted in Michael Slenske, ‘Toyin Ojih Odutola explores race and identity in black and white’, Wallpaper, 8 December 2015, online). Exploring gentle tonality, Ojih Odutola’s work from this period also omits colour, exposing the vast array of tones generated from black to white. Unlike other African American artists, such as Kerry James Marshall and Barkley Hendricks who provided inspiration to the young artist, Ojih Odutola’s unique omission of colour in this series removes colour associations, leaving the viewer with a more subjective reading of her work. ‘I wanted to see what I could do if I minimized all of that and have the outcome be just as interesting if not more interesting when the connotations associated with a broader color palette were omitted’ (the artist, quoted in E. Lopiccolo, ‘Toyin Ojih Odutola’s “Of Context and Without” at Jack Shainman’, Whitewall, 26 January 2016, online). This monochromatic palette evident in her 2015 works served as a tool for the removal of recognisable motifs and clues which viewers automatically rely on to read an image. The use of charcoal in They offers differing qualities to pen and ink, namely a matte finish and slower more methodical rhythm, as a result of the brittle and frictious nature of the material; the charcoal layer appears gentle yet supple like the skin and hair the artist so uniquely depicts. The familiar smooth texture of humans’ unifying physical outer layer is transformed into thousands of tiny lines or strokes, from which the resulting effects range from the appearance of coils of wire to braided glistening threads. The artist has explained that the origin of this, stemmed from an intention to investigate
Toyin Ojih Odutola Follow They signed, titled and dated 'Ojih Odutola "THEY" 2015' on the reverse charcoal on paper 43.2 x 35.6 cm (17 x 14 in.) Executed in 2015.
Description Please note this lot is the property of a private individual. Provenance Jack Shainman Gallery, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited New York, Jack Shainman Gallery, Toyin Ojih Odutola: Of Context and Without, 11 December 2015 - 30 January 2016 Cincinnati, 21C Museum Hotel; Bentonville, 21C Museum Hotel, Seeing Now, April 2016 - January 2018 New York, The Kitchen, On Whiteness, 27 June - 3 August 2018 Catalogue Essay ‘What I really loved is that when you use black as a demarcating tool and replace it with white it suddenly makes things really, really slippery and people get uncomfortable because they can’t delineate anything… All of a sudden this idea of context is very suspect and the content becomes unreliable.’ – Toyin Ojih Odutola In They, executed in 2015, Toyin Ojih Odutola expands her progressive examination of the human form by toying with tonal variations and subtle delineation in her paired-back palette. Exquisitely executed in white charcoal on paper, the sitter’s back and hair emerges from the white ground as the viewer moves around the work. With the onlooker’s moving perspective, the light and dark areas shift and alter, unveiling the contours of the central figure. The work beautifully exemplifies the artist’s distinct exploration of skin and hair and showcases her mastery of mark-marking. Imbuing her unnamed subjects with an energetic vitality, the forms of her unknown sitters are layered through a stratum of charcoal strokes, showcasing her blocks of shading and adept use of materials. Included in Ojih Odutola’s solo exhibition Of Context and Without at Jack Shainman Gallery in 2015 to 2016, the artist’s work has been celebrated internationally and most notably at her first solo museum exhibition, To Wander Determined, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2017. Executed in a monochrome palette, the present work exposes the artifice of the artwork, unveiling Ojih Odutola’s painstaking application of line. ‘I want the marks to be the subject … In particular, I’m exposing my process but I am doing this because I want people to see what I see in the makings of these works that often doesn’t get shown in the final product. It’s like I’m welcoming them into my studio for a moment with each drawing’ (the artist, quoted in Michael Slenske, ‘Toyin Ojih Odutola explores race and identity in black and white’, Wallpaper, 8 December 2015, online). Exploring gentle tonality, Ojih Odutola’s work from this period also omits colour, exposing the vast array of tones generated from black to white. Unlike other African American artists, such as Kerry James Marshall and Barkley Hendricks who provided inspiration to the young artist, Ojih Odutola’s unique omission of colour in this series removes colour associations, leaving the viewer with a more subjective reading of her work. ‘I wanted to see what I could do if I minimized all of that and have the outcome be just as interesting if not more interesting when the connotations associated with a broader color palette were omitted’ (the artist, quoted in E. Lopiccolo, ‘Toyin Ojih Odutola’s “Of Context and Without” at Jack Shainman’, Whitewall, 26 January 2016, online). This monochromatic palette evident in her 2015 works served as a tool for the removal of recognisable motifs and clues which viewers automatically rely on to read an image. The use of charcoal in They offers differing qualities to pen and ink, namely a matte finish and slower more methodical rhythm, as a result of the brittle and frictious nature of the material; the charcoal layer appears gentle yet supple like the skin and hair the artist so uniquely depicts. The familiar smooth texture of humans’ unifying physical outer layer is transformed into thousands of tiny lines or strokes, from which the resulting effects range from the appearance of coils of wire to braided glistening threads. The artist has explained that the origin of this, stemmed from an intention to investigate
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