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Yo Mama
Renee Cox
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
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.
MEDIUM
Gelatin silver photograph
DATES
1993
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) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
none visible
COLLECTIONS
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
2009.82.3
CREDIT LINE
Gift of the Carol and Arthur Goldberg Collection
PROVENANCE
Prior to 2009, provenance not yet documented; by 2009, acquired by Carol and Arthur Goldberg of New York, NY; 2009, gift of Carol and Arthur Goldberg to the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Renee Cox (Jamaican, born 1960). Yo Mama, 1993. Gelatin silver photograph, sheet: 83 × 47 in. (210.8 × 119.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Carol and Arthur Goldberg Collection, 2009.82.3. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of the artist, 2009.82.3_theyomamablackfixed_BkMuseum.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 2009.82.3_theyomamablackfixed_BkMuseum.jpg. Image courtesy of the artist, 2019
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© artist or artist's estate
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