On view 30 October 2026–4 April 2027, works by Chris Ofili are presented in dialogue with Édouard Manet's masterpiece Portrait of Laure (La Négresse) in a dedicated exhibition project in the permanent collection of Pinacoteca Agnelli.
For a long time, the title of Manet's painting consisted solely of the racial epithet 'la négresse,' that is today recognised as offensive. Research into documents belonging to the artist subsequently led to the partial identification of the woman, who we now know was named Laure and lived near Manet's studio in Paris.
Ofili responds to Manet's painting with a group of new works inspired both by the representation of angelic figures in the history of Italian art as well as by Matteo Garrone's recent film Io Capitano, 2023, bringing the history of colonialism and the African diaspora into conversation with the present.
Left: Édouard Manet, Portrait of Laure (La Négresse), ca. 1862. Right: Chris Ofili, Saint Laure (detail), 2026. Pinacoteca Agnelli, Torino / © Chris Ofili. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
