Taking its title from a 1974 song by Bob Marley, No Woman No Cry references the racially motivated murder of the London teenager Stephen Lawrence in April 1993, and the subsequent long-running enquiry into the handling of his case by the Metropolitan police. Ofili intended the painting in part as a tribute to the Lawrence family and to the huge burden of grief that at times appeared to almost physically overwhelm Stephen’s mother Doreen in the near-daily media coverage of the case. Each of the tears shed by the woman in the painting contains a collaged image of Stephen Lawrence’s face. Just discernible embedded in the layers of the painting are the words ‘R.I.P. Stephen Lawrence’, painted in phosphorescent paint. Despite these specific references, the artist also intended the painting to be read in more general terms, as a universal portrayal of melancholy and grief, and of tears as the physical manifestation of these inner emotions.

The painting is one of a group of female heads, a number of which are seen in profile, in which Ofili has attempted to portray a range of emotions or inner states of being. Although relatively simple in composition, No Woman No Cry is complex in its construction, being built up from layers of acrylic and oil paint, interspersed with poured resin and collaged elements, over a layer of fine pencil lines. The figure is composed of myriads of dots, applied to the surface in rhythmic patterns, while a single ball of elephant dung acts as the centrepiece of the figure’s necklace. The title of the work is spelled out by coloured map pins. Ofili’s decorative patterning contrasts with the sombre subject matter.

Chris Ofili was born in Manchester in 1968. He lives and works in London