Black Leather Lace-Up, 2001
Untitled (from Black Desperate Housewives), 2007
River Queen, 2005
Hott-En-Tot, 1994
Liberation of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, 1998
The reason why I chose to blog about Renee Cox was because of what I read about her use of the body in her art to portray African American culture. Renee Cox is a Jamaican-American artist and photographer raised in New York, which is where most of her work is located. Most of her famous work includes photographs of her portraying African American stereotypes. For instance, Hott-En-Tot the photograph featured in the book, she is nude with a fake butt and breast stripped to herself. The parts are over sized which portrays the stereotype of African American having big butts and breast. Another photograph she did that intrigue me was her River Queen piece which is of a lady sitting on a rock in a river. I feel it was named river queen because in black culture many Afro centric people may refer to women as black queens. All in all this is a phenomenal artist because of her portrayal of African American culture and beauty through art.
I really like Renee Cox because of what she decides to do, her subject of the piece. For me black art is always really interesting to me because it does portray all the stereotypes that people have about black americans or african americas.
ReplyDeleteYou should check out Deana Lawson - another African American Woman photographer. She's dealing with some similar themes as Renee Cox but in a less direct way. Her images are intense and intimate and much more difficult to pin down.
ReplyDeleteShe was just included in MOMA's New Photography show.
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/newphotography/deana-lawson/