Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Photography and the Self: The Legacy of F. Holland Day, December 20, 2006–March 4, 2007 (another example exhibited)
Greenwich, The Bruce Museum, Cindy Sherman: Works from Friends of the Bruce Museum, January 29–April 23, 2011
Grace Glueck, "Self-Portraits That Obscure the Self," The New York Times, January 5, 2007, online
American • 1954
Seminal to the Pictures Generation as well as contemporary photography and performance art, Cindy Sherman is a powerhouse art practitioner. Wily and beguiling, Sherman's signature mode of art making involves transforming herself into a litany of characters, historical and fictional, that cross the lines of gender and culture. She startled contemporary art when, in 1977, she published a series of untitled film stills.
Through mise-en-scène and movie-like make-up and costume, Sherman treats each photograph as a portrait, though never one of herself. She embodies her characters even if only for the image itself. Presenting subversion through mimicry, against tableaus of mass media and image-based messages of pop culture, Sherman takes on both art history and the art world.
Though a shape-shifter, Sherman has become an art world celebrity in her own right. The subject of solo retrospectives across the world, including a blockbuster showing at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and a frequent exhibitor at the Venice Biennale among other biennials, Sherman holds an inextricable place in contemporary art history.
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