Steven M. Cozart’s self-portrait entitled Pawn in the Game, is painted directly on a burnished chess board whose wooden beige and faded black checkerboard pattern serves as a back-drop for the subject who gazes directly out at the viewer.
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| Steven M. Cozart, Pawn in the Game I, 2019, acrylic and resin casting on wooden chessboard 12 x 12 inches |
The painting’s support sets the scene for the most striking aspect of the portrait -- the depiction of a large pawn chess piece whose edge cradles the artist’s head. Cozart often includes art historical references in his self-portraits such as the gestural quote from Michelangelo in the more introspective self-portrait entitled Judgement.
Steven M. Cozart, Judgement I, oil on panel
Symbolic attributes such as crowns, scepters and orbs figure in early portraits to convey the power of the sitter to their subjects and rivals. Cozart alludes to power relationships in this contemporary work through the tension he sets up between his own strong physical presence, suggested by wide shoulders and resolute gaze, and the corporeality of the life-size chess piece. The pawn, foot-soldier among the nobility of chess pieces, is the piece with the least amount of power. The prominence of the pawn in the painting is emphasized by five transparent cast half pieces in relief that line the bottom of the picture.
Pawns in a generic chess games are black or white but here the pawn is painted a “deep brown flesh tone” that appears to be a darker variant of the color of the painter’s own face linking it with the pawn, whose circular “head” suggests a faceless version of the artist. In Judgement, the horizontal band behind the subject’s head is actually a dark to light value scale. This work relates to Cozart’s well-known “Paper-Bag” series on colorism, which explores the system of caste and stereotyping based on skin color within African American communities.
Steven M. Cozart, Epilogue, 2016
In the United States, colorism dates to the institution of slavery and the title of Pawn in the Game suggests that a “caste system based upon skin tone” is part of a larger system of codes, as pervasive and as delineated as the chess board. Cozart learned the importance of looking beyond a single narrative while working on a series of drawings of black folk hero John Henry. He was unable to continue when his research revealed a brutal story of unjust incarceration, servitude and death behind the legend. Cozart states that he often can “feel as if he is 3/5 of a man, and that is a very weird place to be in.” His painting would seem to suggest that no one is free from the ”game” of racial stereotyping . The ingrained nature of this system is underlined by the title of an early ballad by Bob Dylan from the debut of the civil rights movement: “They’re Only a Pawn in Their Game.” First performed in 1963, the song memorializes NAACP civil rights activist Medgar Evers, murdered while entering his home in Mississippi at age 37. Through self-examination, Cozart brings us into a larger conversation about the boxes we sort ourselves into and invites us to open our eyes and reflect on “our own pre-conceived notions.”
Artist Bio
Steven M. Cozart, who was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, now works and lives in Greensboro, NC. Cozart received his Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Art Education with a concentration in printmaking and drawing from East Carolina University. His work has been exhibited at the Greenville Museum of Arts, Center for Visual Arts in Greensboro, GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art, The African American Atelier, and the Randolph Artist Guild. He has received grants and awards from the Central Piedmont Regional Artists Hub, The Fine Artist League of Cary, and was the recipient of the Dorthea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from the Center of Documentary studies at Duke University. He teaches at Weaver Academy for Performing & Visual Arts and Advanced Technology in Guilford County and has been a visiting lecturer at ECU, North Carolina A&T State University, and Guilford College.