Chris Ofili’s to take and to give, 2012, is a large-scale painting inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It derives from the artist’s contribution to Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, a unique collaboration between the National Gallery and The Royal Opera House, London.

At the National Gallery, Ofili responded to Titian’s great mythological paintings, Diana and Actaeon, 1556–9, Diana and Callisto, 1556–9, and The Death of Actaeon, 1559-75, which depict stories from Metamorphoses; Ovid’s story is of a hunter, Actaeon, who comes upon the chaste goddess Diana and her nymphs bathing in a sacred grove, the goddess punishes the voyeur by transforming him into a stag, and he is torn to pieces by his own hounds. Ofili produced a series of paintings for the National Gallery exhibition (11 July - 23 September 2012), in which the classical world is transposed to Trinidad. In addition, he worked alongside choreographers and dancers from The Royal Ballet on sets and costumes for a new ballet, Diana & Actaeon. This intense process – creating for the scale of the stage and for the human form – was a revelation to the artist and sparked a prodigious body of work, of which to take and to give is the most monumental example in his Ovidian series. The painting was exhibited in Ofili’s exhibition, also titled to take and to give, held at Victoria Miro, 6 October–21 December 2012.

Taking Ovidian iconography as a starting point, in to take and to give Ofili brings the fluidity and luminosity of watercolour to a canvas nearly nine metres in length. In it, we see a dynamic pyramid of female figures, perhaps the nymphs in Diana’s grove, who, oblivious to the male figure approaching them, seem to merge with an abstracted waterfall which cascades over and around them. Water, as subject and medium, becomes an agent of transformation – each luxuriant smudge and bleed of pigment further signifying the fleeting moment, erotic reverie, confluence and passion.

Image: Chris Ofili, to take and to give, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 519 x 880 cm, 204 3/8 x 346 1/2 in, © Chris Ofili, courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London/Venice. Installation view, Victoria Miro, 6 October–21 December 2012