The exhibit, entitled “Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers,” includes “Yo Mama´s Last Supper” by photographer Rene Cox, in which she herself poses, replacing Christ. Her manifest intention is “criticizing the Catholic Church for the absence of woman´s role in it.”
In 1999 the museum came under fire for housing an exhibit which featured a Virgin Mary with elephant excrement and clippings of pornographic magazines.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani declared that he would appoint a commission to set “decency standards” to keep such work out of museums that receive public money. He lost a court battle to close down the museum after the 1999 incident.
