judy hintz cox: America’s first lady of progressive minimalism

“International Artist of the Month”

A world class artist who teases our intellect, charms our intimate secrets and captivates the light, the shadows and the memories of the best moments of our life, for her art is a statement for our wishes, a signature for our demands and a whisper for the beauty we all search for… Judy Hintz Cox is a superb artist with colors and forms mastery which challenges me, flirts with my rebellious nature and frees me from the complexity of absurd intellectualism…

By Maximillien de La Croix de Lafayette, WACJ Art Historian and Senior Art Critic

Special for the International Art Yearbook 2003

The first time I had the opportunity of attending Judy Cox exhibitions was in 1999 in Washington, DC, USA, while I was still living in the Uncle Sam’s magic land. Judy Cox’s show took place at a fancy and elegant law firm locale with an impressive hall receptions and ritzy corridors in the American capital. This was arranged by her agent Mrs. Ira Pinto, the curator and owner of the fabulous Ira Pinto Gallery in Washington, District of Columbia, USA which was located cross the street from the Phillips Collection. So, I stood in a corridor before a triage of her small paintings displayed in a prominent place. I stood there for almost twelve minutes gazing at three of her small white paintings. The simplicity of her work intrigued me for several reasons, and I wanted to make the acquaintance of the artist. I asked one of the fellows at the office who appeared to be either an employee of the law firm or one of Ira’s crew members. I asked the gentleman if Judy Cox was around. Politely he replied “You just missed her, she just passed by you.” And this she did! She moved fast, she walked faster and vanished in the fastest possible way. Meeting her? No dice!

Two months later, her agent Ira invited me once again to an art exhibition gathering a large number of local and foreign artists. This time, the show took place in the grand and majestic foyer/entrance of one of the prestigious and historical buildings of District of Columbia. As usual, Judith Cox’s work occupied the best wing of the foyer. This time, Judy Cox did not attend the event. No dice again! Thanks God, I have never gambled in my life.

The third and final time, my eyes saw the work of Judy Cox was at Ira Pinto Gallery in Washington, DC, USA. The paintings were there alright, but not Judy Cox. This mysterious, fantastic, fast, energetic phantasmagoric woman is no where to be found!

I have been systematically puzzled by the Minimalism movement. Most certainly, more intrigued and puzzled by the minimalist artists themselves, for I do believe that, they form their own particular circle…They belong to themselves in their perfect sense of simplistic harmony and absolute intellectual nihilism of forms absence and conceptual visualization. They are frequently labeled and “libeled” as the most intellectual and ultra-sophisticated artists of the abstract school of modern art. And, for once, I wanted to point at one them, freeze the moment and ask “Are there differences of categories in the simplistico-intellectual style of Minimalism today?” I am not talking about the New York school but, the universal Minimalism genre! This was one of the questions I wanted Judy Cox to reply to but, she walked ten times faster than me and was twenty times more agile in her fast moving and running than my religiously calculated steps. I missed her! I missed three times!!

Back then, in 1999, Judy Cox’s style was extremely MINIMALISTIC!! Very avant-garde for the conservative Washingtonians! Very “plain” for the very traditional and very “ intellectually complicated” for the ordinary folks. If you scroll back to the top of the page and you take a look at those white paintings lined up against the walls in her studio, you will get my drift; simple, clean, polite, uncomplicated white compositions on white… Perhaps elegant minimal or large marble fragments mysteriously blending into or magically attached to a framed piece of linen! A simple composition in white, off white, grayish-white and all sorts of nuances and tones of light grays to transparent whites! Judy calls that “MINIMALISM”, and I do completely agree with her!!

AND NOW, look below, and wonder: Is it the same studio? Judy Cox work? The same Minimalistic Judith Cox of the “ABOVE”? Believe it or not, this is the work of Judy Cox! Those are the very paintings of Judith Cox today! So what happened to the Minimalism concept of yesterday? Yesteryears? The minimalistic Style? The Belief? The Attachment?The Artistic Loyalty? And what happened to Cox Minimalism genius??????????

We are going to find out!

I do not know if those multi-colored, vibrant, intelligently striking, magnificently composed and elegantly appealing paintings are a part of a posterior, anterior, pre-cursor or a new expressive style of Judy Cox? For, I have never seen before any of them in Judy Cox Washington’s exhibitions. If what I am looking at is the new vehicle, the new channel, the new style of Judy Cox, then, I better tell her that she FOUND THE PERFECT VEHICLE, THE PERFECT CHANNEL AND THE PERFECT STYLE MASTERY! But, if those colorful and dominant canvases belong to a vanished era in Cox’s art chronology, then, I would frankly suggest to Mrs. Cox to have a second a look at this magnificent style and give her paintings a second breathing chance.

Let’s have a grand tour of Judy Cox’s atelier and chat with the artist, and if you are lucky, some of her paintings might reveal their secret to you! For her recent (I pray!) work has made a profound impact on me, as well as on many of our art connoisseurs and critics at the institute.

I tried three times this week to reach Judy Cox by phone but, I remained in vain, probably because of the very far and long distance which is separating us; She lives in Maryland/Washington area and I am here, somewhere lost in Brazil! So, no phone calls, no way of re-catching her in any corridor or glue her fast steps. We will just visit her atelier on the air!

Judy Cox calls her art “MINIMALISM”. I call it “PROGRESSIVE MINIMALISM” and should I be invited to compromise, I would call it, at least, “NEO MINIMALISM”, for the complex majesty of her style annihilates the stagnant pacifism of intellectual minimalism… For her new style drives constructive and simplistic minimalism to the edge of rudimentary curiosity of its absence and meaningless presence!!