- Title: USA: Decades of Cindy Sherman photographs on display in New York.
- Date: 22nd February 2012
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 21, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART VARIOUS OF UNTITLED COLOR PRINTS ON DISPLAY
- Embargoed: 8th March 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa, Usa
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVAE5992W5GVFDXARNHMKU6Y2SI
- Story Text: From the 1970s to the present, the career of famed American photographer Cindy Sherman is on display at New York City's Museum of Modern Art.
The life's work of American artist Cindy Sherman is on display at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
The exhibition spans Sherman's photographic career and includes her most significant centerfolds and irreverent portraits, offering social satire on a life-sized scale.
"This exhibition is a retrospective survey of Cindy Sherman's career for the past 35 years. We've gathered about 175 photographs made between the mid 1970's to the very present and it's really a sweep of the whole career through the best examples of her work," said The Museum of Modern Art Associate Curator Eva Respini.
The exhibition guides viewers through the various themes of Sherman's work.
One gallery shows Sherman posing in as a series of head shots. According to the MoMA, the photographs represent a cast of would-be or has-been female actors.
Another gallery shows Sherman's array of offbeat characters meant to offer a perspective on the link between fashion and femininity.
"One of things to remember about Cindy's work is that she is her own model. All of the characters that she's presenting are in fact herself. She's her own photographer as well, but she's also her own hairstylist, her own make up artist, she works completely unassisted in the studio to create these characters, to create these guises," said Respini.
In each photograph, Sherman takes on a different character and the characters range from society women to garish clowns, most speaking to an image obsessed society created by television, movies and magazines.
Cindy Sherman's photographs are renowned worldwide and are as coveted as works by her male counterparts.
"I think what makes her so important is that she is one of the most influential artist of our time. I think for the past 35 years she's been making work that really speaks to our time and the issues of our time. And I think also she has gotten a certain stature because the work isn't just coveted by collectors and museums, but because it's good."
Sherman's photographs are so good, her "Untitled #96" centerfold, showing a forlorn Sherman lying on a floor, recently sold at auction for nearly $4 million (USD).
"I think it's important to note that none of these are self-portraits. These are all characters, personas that she is performing for the camera and none of them are the artist herself. But I do think that many of them are looking at the roles that women play and the types of women that are presented throughout our society. So for example, in the groundbreaking series, the "Untitled Film Stills", which she made between 1977 and 1980, you see a roster of female types that are familiar to us through film; girl on the run, the bored housewife, the vamp, the bombshell. All of these are archetypes that we've become so familiar with through film and she has really pinpointed the ways in which the roles of women have been articulated through our media and image saturated culture."
All of Sherman's photographs are untitled as she does not want to interpret her work for the viewer.
The exhibition simply titled "Cindy Sherman" will go on display to the public from February 26 through June 11, 2012.
After New York, it will travel to San Francisco, Minneapolis, then Dallas. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None