Don't Look Away: Renee Cox Is Returning the Gaze

As an artist, Renée Cox has never been afraid to invite controversy. And as a Black woman, you could say that, on occasion, her imagery has a way of sending detractors right over the edge.

Take Rudy Giuliani, for example. As mayor of New York City in 2001, he took issue with Cox’s photograph “Yo Mama’s Last Supper,” which evoked da Vinci’s version, but featured a nude Cox surrounded by 12 Black apostles.

The idea that Christ could be depicted as anything other than a white male apparently was beyond the pale for America’s Mayor.

“That’s historically and geographically incorrect,” said Cox, who was born in Jamaica and raised in Scarsdale, New York. “He’s got blond hair and blue eyes but is from the Middle East? I went to Catholic school, and when you’re told we’re all created like God, you run with that. And why not? Why not a Black woman?

“That was the thing they are most afraid of — a Black woman who said I can sit at the table, naked. This is who I am and you aren’t going to judge me,” she said. “Clothes are great, clothes are specific as a certain class. For me, when I’m nude, you can’t pin it on me.”

“All religions are man-made and meant to instill fear. It’s power and control, not about spirituality,” she continued. “It may have started out that way, then everyone got their hands in that and put the fear of God in them. That’s how you manipulate people. I’m not about that. I’m about telling the truth as I know it.”

More than 20 years later, Cox remains unafraid to tell her truth as she knows it. In addition to religion, she has also taken on the mythology of America in her work. Her 2017 photograph “The Signing,” for example, is a take on Howard Chandler Christy’s 1940 painting, “Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States.” The original, of course, depicts a room filled with white men doing the business of their fledgling country, but in Cox’s version, the players, more than two dozen in all, are people of color, each dressed in a costume from a different time period — appropriate, given that Cox is a former fashion photographer. From cowboy gear and colonial dresses complete with powdered wigs, to 17th century European conquering attire, traditional African wear and even a burka of sorts, these Black men and women are in “the room where it happens,” to borrow a phrase from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton.”

And that, notes Cox is the point.

On July 2, Guild Hall in East Hampton will officially reopen the doors of its newly renovated galleries with “Renee Cox: A Proof of Being,” a solo exhibition of the artist’s work organized by independent curator Monique Long. The show is a selection of Cox’s most well-known and celebrated photographs from 1993 to the present. This survey will demonstrate how the artist’s practice has evolved through her performative self-portraits, and will include images from the same “Yo Mama” series that sent Giuliani into such a tizzy two decades ago.

“‘Yo Mama,’ one of the first photographs in the series, will be featured as a monumental self-portrait with her infant son that is highly recognizable,” explained Long. “It’s a striking image of self-portraiture. The show is of about a dozen works that highlight pivotal moments in her career, from several series.

“Renee’s engagement with art history and the way she enters the conversation with her contemporary work is timeless, and a lot of people will be excited to see the work cumulatively,” Long said.

In a nod to the country of her birth, Cox also created a series of photographs in which she portrays the legendary Queen Nanny of the Maroons, an 18th century Jamaican spiritual and military leader who led a community of formerly enslaved Africans. Cox also occasionally takes on purely fictional characters in her art, including the Afro-centric superhero Raje, while her photograph “Cousins at Pussy’s Pond,” which is a nod to Edouard Manet’s 1863 painting “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe,” features Cox seated nude on a blanket with two men holding spears and was taken locally in Springs, not far from Cox’s Amagansett home.

“It was important for all of us on the team to include some of those works from out there,” Long said. “I think with her ties to the community, the launch of the new building and her career, the timing was perfect.

The Guild Hall exhibition will also present “Soul Culture,” a video projection mapping piece created by Cox only recently.

“It’s going to be total immersive and is a brand new installation,” Cox explained. “I worked on the technical side with Carnegie Mellon graduate students. This is the second time I’m showing it. I also showed it at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh.”

In looking back over her long career, when asked how she first came up with the idea of recreating famous imagery and events with herself in the starring role, Cox explained that though she began in the fashion field, the barriers she encountered when she transitioned to the art world quickly made her realize she needed to do things differently.

“It was about flipping the script,” she said, noting that her first foray into the work began as a response to issues related to female artists, especially given how they are viewed when they also happen to be mothers.

“The art world at that time was insular, and women weren’t featured much,” she said. “There were just a handful of women and a handful of Black people.”

“I was the first pregnant person to be in the Whitney Independent Study Program — it was the ’90s and it had been around for 20 years at that juncture,” Cox said. “The perception was, if you were female and had children then your work would not be as strong, as viable or impactful. Once I realized that was the concept within the art world, I needed to turn it on its head.

“I don’t think you realize things like that until you’re in that situation,” she added. “I came out of the fashion industry where nobody cared if you were pregnant. They’d say, ‘Congratulations, and please don’t break your water on the set.’”

An important aspect of Cox’s work is the way in which she harnesses her own power by staring directly into the camera lens, not flinching, not shying away. While some have compared her work to that of fellow artist Cindy Sherman, who also places herself as the protagonist at the center of her imagery, Cox doesn’t feel they have a lot in common.

“A theme for me is returning the gaze, giving it back,” she said. “Sometimes, people compare my work to Cindy Sherman’s, but other than the fact it’s self-portraiture, I don’t see the similarity. I will not be objectified, because I’m looking at the viewer. There’s no sideways glance.

“We exist and we’re here. For me, the representation of Black folks now and when I started out was pretty poor. I have been of a mindset to empower the image and how you see it,” she continued. “As an artist, you represent the times you’re living in, what’s around you. I feel like I was definitely ahead of my time.”

Cox has been an East End resident for decades, having bought her Amagansett home in 1989, and her personal history on the East End goes back even a bit further — to the Tuller School at Maycroft in North Haven where she was a boarding student for two years as an adolescent.

The areas around her East End home have served as the backdrop for much of her artwork, including the American Family series, which includes “Cousins at Pussy’s Pond,” along with photographs taken at Green River Cemetery and on Red Dirt Road.

She’s intrigued by both the African American and Native American history of the region. The fact that Sag Harbor’s Eastville community is so rooted in Black history, the Amistad’s landing off the coast of Montauk, the strong Shinnecock and Montaukett cultures, all inspire her art.

“The area is very rich in terms of the history, and it definitely plays a role in my work,” she said. “I shoot a lot in the woods near my house. My house butts up to [Community Preservation Fund] land. I use Louse Point, Gerard Drive, Albert’s Landing.”

Cox feels strongly that it’s important to teach the history that has built the country and led up to where we are now — which is at a point where topics like critical race theory, are considered taboo and off limits in certain circles.

“No. You need to teach that history and the lives of African Americans who were forced to come here as slaves,” Cox said. “In the same breath, you can’t teach about the Holocaust either, which is crazy. All these evil people are getting a pass. Younger generations don’t know about it. But you want people to know so they don’t repeat that stupid behavior in the future.

“It’s important to bring that into the world. If I can and bring it to light, I will.”

“Renee Cox: A Proof of Being” opens on Sunday, July 2, at Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, East Hampton. The show remains on view through September 4. Admission to the gallery is free and Louise & Howie’s Coffee Bar is open in the lobby during gallery hours, Thursday to Monday, noon to 5 p.m. On Sunday, July 9, at 1 p.m., Renée Cox and photographer, historian, educator and MacArthur fellow Deborah Willis discuss their work, shared interests and the representation of the Black body. Admission to the talk is $20 ($18 members). Visit guildhall.org for details.