Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Yo Mama

Renee Cox

Courtesy of the artist

Object Label

Much of Renee Cox’s artistic practice involves portraying herself and Black women as icons and mythical figures. In Yo Mama, she embodies a Madonna, or Virgin Mary, figure in a powerful, oversize photograph. A related work in the Yo Mama series skewering the whiteness of traditional Christian art, Yo Mama’s Last Supper (1996), sparked controversy while on display at the Brooklyn Museum in 2001. The photograph, in which Cox poses naked as Christ at the Last Supper surrounded by Black disciples and a white Judas, was deemed iconoclastic and profane by conservative religious groups, drawing the ire of then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Caption

Renee Cox (Jamaican, born 1960). Yo Mama, 1993. Gelatin silver photograph, sheet: 83 × 47 in. (210.8 × 119.4 cm) frame: 90 × 53 3/4 × 2 1/4 in. (228.6 × 136.5 × 5.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Carol and Arthur Goldberg Collection, 2009.82.3. © Renee Cox. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist)

Tags

Brooklyn Icons

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Artist

Renee Cox

Title

Yo Mama

Date

1993

Medium

Gelatin silver photograph

Classification

Photograph

Dimensions

sheet: 83 × 47 in. (210.8 × 119.4 cm) frame: 90 × 53 3/4 × 2 1/4 in. (228.6 × 136.5 × 5.7 cm)

Signatures

none visible

Credit Line

Gift of the Carol and Arthur Goldberg Collection

Accession Number

2009.82.3

Rights

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Frequent Art Questions

Tell me more.
Renee Cox is an African-American artist who primarily works in the medium of photography. Her work addresses social issues, especially related to race and gender, and has been considered controversial for the way in which she reinterprets traditional Catholic imagery. Here, Cox is positioning her nude body as a response to the archetype of the white, virginal Madonna.
I love the photograph by Renee Cox. Any thoughts on that one?
Cox's work often addresses social issues, especially related to race and gender.
As part of Cox's larger "Yo Mama" series in which she reinterprets traditional Catholic imagery, this image can be read as a Madonna and Child. Cox herself portrays the Madonna and her own son represents Christ.
I don’t see Madonna and Child.... but I do see how her body intersecting with her son makes a cross.
It’s true that historically the Madonna and Child are shown in a very different context, often seated or “enthroned” and never nude (at least, Mary is never nude). But Cox does refer to other traditional elements in her interpretation, such as the Madonna’s outward stare and the power of motherhood.
Tell me more.
Cox's work has been viewed as controversial for the way she reinterprets Catholic imagery, to which she says: "I have a right to interpret the Last Supper just as Leonardo da Vinci created the Last Supper with people who look like him." In this photo, Cox portrays herself and her son in a manner that references the Madonna and Child.