Cindy Sherman

Vocation

Notable

Traits

American photographer, a highly respected New Yorker who frequently presents herself as the subject and model of her photographs. Rather than creating self-portraits per se, Cindy Sherman appears in disguise by wearing wigs and costumes, or she uses mannequin parts and props to create different identities. By thus showing various masks of femininity, she says, "I am trying to make people recognize something of themselves rather than me." As a child growing up in Long Island, the artist became preoccupied with mirrors, dressing up and applying makeup, often fooling her neighbors by walking around the local streets as a little old lady. While a student at State University of Buffalo, NY 1972-76, she was notorious for appearing in public dressed as Lucille Ball. Switching her major from painting to photography, she graduated with a B.A. and moved to New York City in 1977. Sherman established her reputation with the "Untitled Film Still" series of 1981, which she had begun in 1977. These 69 small black-and-white pictures that feature Sherman dressed in the guises of clichéd 1950s and 1960s B-movie heroines (housewife, schoolgirl, film noir vamp) mimic the sex object poses of women of the era. By appearing as these various personae Sherman also revealed the masquerade of (feminine) identity itself. Moreover, by acting as both artist and model she destabilized the traditional gender roles of female object and male subject. Her voyeuristic "Centerfolds," 1981 and "Fashion," 1983-84 series continued to engage with post-modern feminist discourse concerning the construction of woman-as-image. Feeling pigeonholed by the discourse surrounding her work and frustrated by the demand of an ever-increasing market for her photographs, Sherman then attempted to make photographs that were "unsaleable." She used color and exhibited very large prints. Rather than depicting herself she produced ultra fantastic, lurid and visceral imagery. These depictions of vomit, prosthetic body parts and grotesque fairy tales reflected concerns about eating disorders, insanity, and death. The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, showed her work in 1987. During the 1990s Sherman returned to her ironic commentary upon stereotypical female identities, also engaging with representations of masculinity. Her "Sex Pictures" series of 1991 portrayed medical dummies in strangely lewd centerfold poses. Sherman received a MacArthur "genius grant" in 1995 and in 1996 the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York) acquired her complete "Untitled Film Stills" for a reported $1million. The next year, Sherman directed the low-budget cult film, "Office Killer," about a worker turned serial killer. Her 1997 MoMA retrospective was sponsored by Madonna. In 1999 Sherman exhibited more of her typically-disturbing photos. Through these images of savaged dolls and doll parts she thus continued her exploration of the themes of violence and artificiality. She is married to video artist Michel Auder. Link to Wikipedia biography