Life and Art of Cindy Sherman, Feminist Photographer
- Early Life and Family. Cindy Sherman was born Cynthia Morris Sherman on January 19, 1954 in New Jersey. ...
- Beginnings as an Artist. Sherman studied art at Buffalo State College. ...
- Untitled Film Stills. Sherman works in series of photographs in which she builds off a theme that addresses a social issue.
- Centerfolds and Later Work. ...
- Awards and Accolades. ...
- Sources. ...
What is Cindy Sherman famous for?
Cindy Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American photographer and filmmaker whose “Untitled Film Stills,” a series of photographs meant to evoke a still shot from a fictional movie, launched her to fame. Known For: Photographs exploring themes of feminism, image, subjugation, and superficiality
Does Cindy Sherman do non-photographic art?
^ Sarah Cascone (December 5, 2019), Cindy Sherman Has Unveiled Her First Non-Photographic Works at Art Basel Miami Beach: Tapestries Based on Her Instagram Art Net News; accessed June 11, 2021. ^ Liam Freeman (March 25, 2021), Cindy Sherman on Her First Ever Non-Photographic Works Vogue; accessed June 11, 2021. ^ "Cindy Sherman: Street-Style Star".
Who is Cindy Sherman’s Tales of Terror?
Larry Frascella, “Cindy Sherman’s Tales of Terror,” Aperture 86.103 (Summer 1986): 49. Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters.
What are the themes of Cindy Sherman's photography?
Here are six themes Cindy Sherman explores with her fine art photography. 1 Untitled Film Stills. cindyshermancomplete. 9,016 followers. View Profile. cindyshermancomplete. 154 posts · 9,016 followers. View More on ... 2 Fairy Tales and Disasters. 3 History Portraits. 4 Clowns. 5 Fashion. More items
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What kind of art did Cindy Sherman do?
Photograp...PhotographCindy Sherman/Forms
What is Cindy Sherman known for?
Cindy Sherman, in full Cynthia Morris Sherman, (born January 19, 1954, Glen Ridge, New Jersey, U.S.), American photographer known for her images—particularly her elaborately “disguised” self-portraits—that comment on social role-playing and sexual stereotypes.
Why did Cindy Sherman do self-portraits?
Sherman found her signature approach to photographic self-portraiture while still a student, observing, “I don't know if it was therapeutic, out of boredom, or my own fascination with thinking about make-up in the mid-seventies… I had this desire to transform myself.
Is Cindy Sherman postmodernism?
| A Postmodern Portrait of the Artist. Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills fits neatly, in many ways, into the criteria set out by postmodernism. The series grapples with the idea of the constructed self, and the illusion of identity.
What is the meaning behind Cindy Sherman's photography?
Sexual desire and domination, the fashioning of self-identity as mass deception, these are among the unsettling subjects lying behind Sherman's extensive series of self-portraiture in various guises. Sherman's work is central in the era of intense consumerism and image proliferation at the close of the 20th century.
What is Cindy Sherman inspired by?
Influenced by a previous generation of performance artists, Sherman developed a fascination for disguise – a fascination that had been with her since childhood, now in encounter with her own camera.
Why is Cindy Sherman a feminist?
Her work usually features photographs that depict herself dressed and made up as different female characters. Sherman's photos are often interpreted as feminist art since her works raise questions regarding the objectification of women by the male gaze and the construction of the female gender.
What does concept mean in photography?
Conceptual photography as a methodology As a methodology conceptual photography is a type of photography that is staged to represent an idea. The 'concept' is both preconceived and, if successful, understandable in the completed image.
Who took the first picture?
Joseph Nicéphore NiépceUnauthorized use is prohibited. Centuries of advances in chemistry and optics, including the invention of the camera obscura, set the stage for the world's first photograph. In 1826, French scientist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, took that photograph, titled View from the Window at Le Gras, at his family's country home.
What is postmodernism photography?
Postmodern photography is characterized by atypical compositions of subjects that are unconventional or sometimes completely absent, making sympathy with the subject difficult or impossible.
Is Cindy Sherman a feminist?
Cindy Sherman's Enduring Legacy Despite her reticence in this respect, Sherman remains a feminist icon to many, and her critiques of art, gender, and popular culture continue to inspire new generations of artists around the world.
What makes a photo post modern?
What is postmodernism? Postmodern art questions the notion of authenticity and embraces 'hybridity', blurring the lines between high art and popular culture. Postmodern photographers are particularly interested in the selective, constructed nature of the photograph.
What is Cindy Sherman's most famous piece?
Untitled Film StillsHer breakthrough work is often considered to be the collected "Untitled Film Stills", a series of 70 black-and-white photographs of herself evoking typical women roles in performance media (especially arthouse films and popular B-movies).
Is Cindy Sherman a feminist?
Cindy Sherman's Enduring Legacy Despite her reticence in this respect, Sherman remains a feminist icon to many, and her critiques of art, gender, and popular culture continue to inspire new generations of artists around the world.
Who took the first picture?
Joseph Nicéphore NiépceUnauthorized use is prohibited. Centuries of advances in chemistry and optics, including the invention of the camera obscura, set the stage for the world's first photograph. In 1826, French scientist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, took that photograph, titled View from the Window at Le Gras, at his family's country home.
What awards has Cindy Sherman won?
MacArthur FellowshipGuggenhe... Fellowship for Creativ...Hasselblad AwardGlamour Award for The Super...Wolf Prize in Arts ‑ Photograp...Cindy Sherman/Awards
What is Cindy Sherman's art style?
Cindy Sherman is a contemporary master of socially critical photography. She is a key figure of the " Pictures Generation ," a loose circle of American artists who came to artistic maturity and critical recognition during the early 1980s, a period notable for the rapid and widespread proliferation of mass media imagery. At first painting in a super-realist style in art school during the aftermath of American Feminism, Sherman turned to photography toward the end of the 1970s in order to explore a wide range of common female social roles, or personas. Sherman sought to call into question the seductive and often oppressive influence of mass-media over our individual and collective identities. Turning the camera on herself in a game of extended role-playing of fantasy Hollywood, fashion, mass advertising, and "girl-next-door" roles and poses, Sherman ultimately called her audience's attention to the powerful machinery and make-up that lay behind the countless images circulating in an incessantly public, "plugged in" culture. Sexual desire and domination, the fashioning of self-identity as mass deception, these are among the unsettling subjects lying behind Sherman's extensive series of self-portraiture in various guises. Sherman's work is central in the era of intense consumerism and image proliferation at the close of the 20th century.
What is Sherman's photographic portraiture?
Sherman's photographic portraiture is both intensely grounded in the present while it extends long traditions in art that force the audience to reconsider common stereotypes and cultural assumptions , among the latter political satire, caricature, the graphic novel, pulp fiction, stand-up comedy (some of her characters are indeed uncomfortably "funny"), and other socially critical disciplines.
What does Sherman's "freezing" of the image mean?
By freezing the image into a kind of sorry, secular icon, Sherman demonstrates how art may act as a visual "truth serum," a force of social change by way of its ability to stop a viewer in his/her tracks and suggest how certain assumptions are culturally inherited, not necessarily "natural.".
Why did Sherman turn to photography?
At first painting in a super-realist style in art school during the aftermath of American Feminism, Sherman turned to photography toward the end of the 1970s in order to explore a wide range of common female social roles, or personas.
What is the subject of Sherman's self portraits?
Sexual desire and domination, the fashioning of self-identity as mass deception, these are among the unsettling subjects lying behind Sherman's extensive series of self-portraiture in various guises. Sherman's work is central in the era of intense consumerism and image proliferation at the close of the 20th century.
What is Sherman's unique form of portrait photography?
In this sense, Sherman's unique form of portrait photography functions, in part, as a sign for the subjective nature of all human intelligence and the unstable nature of visual perception.
Is Sherman's approach to female stereotypes ironic?
Others, understand Sherman's approach as critically-ironic parody of female stereotypes. Others still, assert that both cases are simultaneously true, with Sherman knowingly taking on stereotypical female roles in order to question their pervasiveness.
Who is Cindy Sherman?
Cindy Sherman. American, born 1954. 89 works online. For four decades, Cindy Sherman has probed the construction of identity, playing with the visual and cultural codes of art, celebrity, gender, and photography. She is among the most significant artists of the Pictures Generation—a group that also includes Richard Prince, Louise Lawler, ...
What is Cindy Sherman's most famous work?
For four decades, Cindy Sherman has probed the construction of identity, playing with the visual and cultural codes of art, celebrity, gender, and photography. She is among the most significant artists of the Pictures Generation—a group that also includes Richard Prince, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, and Robert Longo —who came of age in the 1970s and responded to the mass media landscape surrounding them with both humor and criticism, appropriating images from advertising, film, television, and magazines for their art.
What did Cindy Sherman do in the 1980s?
In the 1980s, Sherman used color film and large prints, and focused more on costume, lighting and facial expression. In 1995, Sherman was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013 she received an honorary doctorate degree from the Royal College of Art, London. Wikidata.
What series did Cindy Sherman play in?
While she sometimes portrays glamorous characters, Sherman has always been more interested in the grotesque. In the 1980s and 1990s, series such as the disasters (1986–89) and the sex pictures (1992) confronted viewers with the strange and ugly aspects of humanity in explicit, visceral images.
What is Sherman's untitled #216?
She often works in series, improvising on themes such as centerfolds (1981) and society portraits (2008). Untitled #216, from her history portraits (1981), exemplifies her use of theatrical effects to embody different roles ...
Who is Cindy Sherman?
Cindy Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American photographer and filmmaker whose “Untitled Film Stills,” a series of photographs meant to evoke a still shot from a fictional movie, launched her to fame.
Where was Cindy Sherman born?
Cindy Sherman was born Cynthia Morris Sherman on January 19, 1954 in New Jersey. She grew up on Long Island and was the youngest of five children. Because the sibling closest to her age was nine years her senior, Sherman felt like an only child, sometimes forgotten in the midst of so many others in her family. Sherman has said that, as a result of her family dynamic, she sought attention in any way possible. From a very young age, Sherman donned alternate personas with the assistance of her extensive costume wardrome.
What is the Sherman series?
Sherman works in series of photographs in which she builds off a theme that addresses a social issue. Her subjects have been wide-ranging as what it means to age as a woman, the subjugating effect of the male gaze on the female form, and the contorting effects of social media on self-image. Within each series, Sherman acts as the model, costumer, make-up artist, and set designer.
What are the tropes of Sherman?
The tropes portrayed by Sherman include the young ingenue, dominated by the city, who gazes off in fear at an unknown person or object out of frame, and the outcast, standing among detritus and ruins, waiting for someone to arrive. Often, these images contain within them a threat and a feeling that nothing good can come of these situations. By inserting discomfort into images of women, Sherman asks the viewer to consider the subject and understand her vulnerability.
Where did Sherman go to college?
Sherman studied art at Buffalo State College. After graduating, she moved to New York City with artist Robert Longo, who was a fellow art student and Buffalo State graduate.
Is Cindy Sherman an artist?
Cindy Sherman is a widely honored artist. She has received both a MacArthur Genius Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is an honorary member of the Royal Academy, and has been represented in numerous biennials across the world.
Who is Cindy Sherman?
Cindy Sherman. Honorary doctorate degree from the Royal College of Art, London. Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters.
How many black and white photographs did Cindy Sherman make?
The series Untitled Film Stills (1977–1980), with which Cindy Sherman achieved international recognition, consists of 69 black-and-white photographs. The artist poses in different roles (librarians, hillbillies, and seductresses), and settings (streets, yards, pools, beaches, and interiors), producing a result reminiscent of stills typical of Italian neorealism or American film noir of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. She avoided putting titles on the images to preserve their ambiguity. She would often pose her heroines as alone, expressionless, and in private. An overarching characteristic of her heroines were those that did not follow conventional ideas of marriage and family. They were rebellious women who either died as that or who were later tamed by society. Modest in scale compared to Sherman's later cibachrome photographs, they are all 8 1/2 by 11 inches, each displayed in identical, simple black frames. Sherman used her own possessions as props, or sometimes borrowed, as in Untitled Film Still #11 in which the doggy pillow belongs to a friend. The shots were also largely taken in her own apartment. The Untitled Film Stills fall into several distinct groups:
What degree did Cindy Sherman receive?
In 1995, Sherman was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013 she received an honorary doctorate degree from the Royal College of Art, London.
How big are the Sherman photos?
Modest in scale compared to Sherman's later cibachrome photographs, they are all 8 1/2 by 11 inches, each displayed in identical, simple black frames. Sherman used her own possessions as props, or sometimes borrowed, as in Untitled Film Still #11 in which the doggy pillow belongs to a friend.
When did Cindy Sherman start her pink robes?
In 1982, Sherman began her Pink Robes series which includes Untitled #97, #98, #99 and #100. In Fairy Tales, 1985, and Disasters, 1986–1989, Cindy Sherman uses visible prostheses and mannequins for the first time.
How many pictures did Sherman make?
Between 1989 and 1990, Sherman made 35 large, color photographs restaging the settings of various European portrait paintings of the fifteenth through early 19th centuries under the title History Portraits.
What is the role of Sherman?
To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress, and model.
Where was Cindy Sherman born?
In 2013 she received an honorary doctorate degree from the Royal College of Art, London. Sherman was born on January 19, 1954, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, the youngest of the five children of Dorothy and Charles Sherman. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to the township of Huntington, Long Island, where Cindy grew up as the youngest ...
Who are the artists that Sherman encountered?
It was in Buffalo that Sherman encountered the photo-based Conceptual works of artists Hannah Wilke, Eleanor Antin, and Adrian Piper. Along with artists like Laurie Simmons, Louise Lawler, and Barbara Kruger, Sherman is considered to be part of the Pictures Generation.
What is the role of Sherman?
To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress, and model.
What was Sherman's goal in creating Hallwalls?
In 1974, together with Longo, Charles Clough and Nancy Dwyer, she created Hallwalls, an arts center intended as a space that would accommodate artists from diverse backgrounds. Sherman was also exposed to the contemporary art exhibited at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the two Buffalo campuses of the SUNY school system, Media Studies Buffalo, and the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts, and Artpark, in nearby Lewiston, N.Y.
What magazine did Cindy Sherman work for?
In 1985, Sherman was commissioned by Vanity Fair magazine to illustrate fairy tales.
What is Sherman's history portrait?
Sherman’s History Portraits (1988–90) are humorous caricatures of subjects in Old Master paintings. The artist returns to casting herself as the character and poses in full costume with props and exaggerated body part prosthetics. Sherman represents a number of historical art periods in the series, including Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical. Her subjects include typical subjects painted by artists such as Raphael and Caravaggio — Madonna and child, clergymen, aristocrats, women of leisure, and milkmaids.
What is the role of Sherman?
This means that Sherman not only poses as the subject of her images, but she also assumes the role of makeup artist, stylist, art director, and, of course, photographer. Under different guises, Sherman takes on the identity of stereotypes that have appeared in art and media throughout history. She dismantles preconceptions ...
Why did Sherman stop making the series?
Three years after the project ended, Sherman was quoted saying she stopped simply because she “ran out of clichés.”
Who was the model that posed for the magazine in 1983?
In 1983, Sherman produced a series of 14 images that challenged the fashion industry’s beauty conventions. She photographed herself wearing high-fashion clothing by designers, including Comme des Garçons, Dorothee Bis, Issey Miyake, and Jean-Paul Gaultier. However, rather than pose like a model you would find in a magazine today, Sherman appears un-glamorous, eccentric, and sometimes even ill.
Who is the most successful photo artist?
With a career spanning over 40 years, Cindy Sherman is considered one of the most successful photo artists living today. Sherman uses herself as her primary model, but her images are not considered standard self-portraits. Each carefully considered photo is a representation of a character, theme, or situation.
Does Cindy Sherman have a private Instagram account?
In 2017, Sherman allowed public access to her private Instagram account, where she has an ever-growing collection of digitally manipulated selfies. She uses various phone apps to distort her face, add backgrounds, faux makeup, moles, and wrinkles.
Early Life and Family
Beginnings as An Artist
Untitled Film Stills
- Sherman works in series of photographs in which she builds off a theme that addresses a social issue. Her subjects have been wide-ranging as what it means to age as a woman, the subjugating effect of the male gaze on the female form, and the contorting effects of social media on self-image. Within each series, Sherman acts as the model, costumer, make-up artist, and set design…
Centerfolds and Later Work
- In the early 80s came the “Centerfolds,” a series of double-width images intended to mimic the typically seductive and alluring poses of models placed at the center of adult magazines. Sherman turned the concept of a centerfold on its head by using the format to depict women who had endured physical abuse. The images hold the viewer accountable for approaching the work…
Awards and Accolades
- Cindy Sherman is a widely honored artist. She has received both a MacArthur Genius Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is an honorary member of the Royal Academy, and has been represented in numerous biennials across the world. Sherman continues to be an important voice not only in contemporary art, but also in the media age. Her biting critique...
Sources
- BBC (1994). Nobody's Here But Me. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXKNuWtXZ_U. (2012).
- Adams, T. (2016). Cindy Sherman: "Why am I in these photos?." The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jul/03/cindy-sherman-interview-retrospective-motivat...
- BBC (1994). Nobody's Here But Me. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXKNuWtXZ_U. (2012).
- Adams, T. (2016). Cindy Sherman: "Why am I in these photos?." The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jul/03/cindy-sherman-interview-retrospective-motivat...
- Russeth, A. (2017). Facetime with Cindy Sherman. W. [online] Available at: https://www.wmagazine.com/story/cindy-sherman-instagram-selfie.
Overview
Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters.
Her breakthrough work is often considered to be the collected "Untitled Film Stills", a series of 70 black-and-white photographs of herself evoking typical …
Early life and education
Sherman was born on January 19, 1954, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, the youngest of the five children of Dorothy and Charles Sherman. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to the township of Huntington, Long Island. Her father worked as an engineer for Grumman Aircraft. Her mother taught reading to children with learning difficulties. Sherman has described her mother as good to a fault, and her father as strict and cruel. She was raised Episcopalian.
Photography
Sherman works in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress, and model.
Bus Riders (1976–2000) is a series of photographs that feature the artist as a variety of meticulously observed characters. The photographs were shot in 1976 for the Bus Authority for …
Music and films
In the early 1990s, Sherman worked with Minneapolis band Babes in Toyland, providing photographs for covers for the albums Fontanelle and Painkillers, creating a stage backdrop used in live concerts, and acting in the promotional video for the song "Bruise Violet." She also worked as a film director. Sherman moved from photographs to film with her movie Office Killer in 1997, starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Molly Ringwald and Carol Kane. Dorine, played by Carol Kane, is a sta…
Exhibitions
Sherman's first solo show in New York was presented at a noncommercial space The Kitchen in 1980. When the Metro Pictures Gallery opened later that year, Sherman's photographs were the first show. "Untitled Film Stills" were shown first at the non-profit gallery Artists Space where Sherman was working as a receptionist. Her first solo exhibitions in France were presented by Galeri…
Collections
Works by Sherman are held in the following collections:
• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• The Broad, Los Angeles, CA
• Jewish Museum (Manhattan), New York, NY
Feminism
In Sherman's Imitation of Life series of 2016 she poses, in vintage costume and theatrical makeup, as a variety of ageing actress-like women.
When writing about Sherman's "Film Stills" in the journal October, the scholar Douglas Crimp states that Sherman's work is "a hybrid of photography and performance art that reveals femininity to be an effect of representation."
Awards and other recognition
• 1981: Artist-in-residence, Light Work, Syracuse, New York
• 1995: MacArthur Fellowship. This fellowship grants $500,000 over five years, no strings attached, to important scholars in a wide range of fields, to encourage their future creative work.
• 1993: Larry Aldrich Foundation Award