THE CINDY SHOW
VISITED 10/03/2012
WRITTEN 12/05/2012
Infamous for
her pioneering virtuoso that mocks the aspects of media in a comical and
extravagant approach (Bright, 2006,
p.24), Cindy Sherman’s most exclusive and recent retrospective is currently
being held at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City. Approaching the sixth
floor of the building, a giant print and projection invites and introduces its
audience to the staggering amount of over 170 photographs spread over the space
of eleven rooms, all of which are chronologically set and brightly coloured.
Sherman’s “wild
transformations and ability to create pure theatre” (golden, 2008, p.230) are
crafted through her diversity of talents, causing her to take the role of
model, artist, director, costume and set deign, makeup and author. Her work “invites
viewers to reflect the constructed and false nature of portrait
representations” (Golden, 2008, p.230) while tackling concepts of human
identity, sexuality, politics, vulnerability and power. Since the mid-seventies
cultural critics have engrossed her post-modern approach “questioning the
construction of femininity in contemporary society” (Bright, 2006, p.24)
“I never thought
I was acting. When I became involved with close-ups, I needed more information
in the expression. I couldn’t depend of the background or atmosphere. I wanted
a story to come from the face, somehow the acting just happened” (Hattenstone,
The Guardian, 2011). The master of disguise prefers to feel anonymous and
hidden in her composures, acting as a paradox for the revealed and hidden,
named and nameless as she disappears in front of the lens.
Sherman’s
parental background has greatly influenced her performances as she was often
discouraged and neglected, causing her to experiment with personas. This resulted in her “dressing up” being
considered as strange, as did her College who were also very strict on
appearance. She began painting which lead to her exploring other mediums and
using her face as a canvas, before picking up a camera, whenever depression
clouded she would distract her emotions through renovating into characters,
which resulted in a correlation of mood in her artistry.
Room one of the
exposition acts as an introduction to Sherman’s life and practice, which illustrated
such series as mid-seventies with her shortest and experimental series of black
and white prints titled “Untitled A-E.” This swiftly leads to the second space showcasing
her most internationally famous seventy-piece collection “Untitled Film Stills,
1997-1980,” the opportunity surfaces to use signification and cultural coding invoking
discrete and inner logic (Cotton, 2009,p.192). The series exemplifies “femme
fatal” (Golden, 2008, p.230) from “fifties B-Movies and melodramas through
stills” (Marien Warner, 2011, p.442), which “exist only in her mind.. teasing
the audience to find a narrative” (Golden, 2008, p.230). Her anthology does not
pinpoint specific references, however suggests a “gist of film plots staged
with cinematic codes and implications” (Cotton, 2009,p.192) of film noir and
typical Italian neorealism preserving ambiguity.
The flow of the
display moves through to a section of 12 images from her 1981 “Centerfold”
series, which zoom from scenes to “cropped close ups portraying young women in
roles that vary from sultry seductress to a frightened, vulnerable victims”
(Glueck, 2003). She confronts the male audience by inflicting remorse and guilt
of their expectations of the glamorously perverted stereotypes of women in the
media (ngv.vic.gov.au, N/D). The seventh space dedicated to her “History
Portraits” 1988-1990 where Sherman’s spur swings from film theory to art memoirs.
Here she playfully re-creates baroque sized prints of seventeenth century oil
paintings. Inspired by Raphael’s “La Fornarina”, Jean Fouquet’s “Madonna of
Melun”, Caravaggio’s “Sick Bacchus” and “Judith Beheading Holofernes” Sherman’s
extent of scale accurately taunts every last detail of notion and design though
the use of costume fringed with props and prosthetics (skarstedt.com, 2008).
The final rooms
of the exhibition glances over more recent creations such as the 2008 “Society
Portraits” that focuses on the “far east coast American women who are well kept
and affiant posed as if in a professional studio” (Cotton, 2009,p.193).
Evidently her characters all resemble familiar women in society, which struggle
with high beauty standards and trying to prevail there youth in a status
obsessed culture of surface and sham (moma.org, 2012). Another feature closing the
journey is the 16mm film constructed in 1975, where a paper-doll discourses the
“daily problem of what to wear becoming a permanent farce” (Patterson, 2012).
The only
critique is the absent pieces Sherman’s most intense and disturbing
progressions. Her surreal and early projects seem downplayed through the
mid-eighties to early-nineties (Halle, 2012) as the
gallery only presents a handful of pictures from this entire period
(dlkcollection, 2012) “sprinkled among the other efforts” (Smith, 2012). In the skimmed displays of “Disasters and Fairy Tales,
1985-1989,” Sherman applies a grotesque craft of substituting herself
with prostheses and plastic body parts (Marien Warner, 2011, p.442). These
images are somewhat haunting and unsettling through the skill of texture and
lighting causing a “bewitchment and metamorphosis crossed with the sorrow of
classical tragedy” (Shubert, 2012).
It is
noticeable that “less familiar groups of Sherman-free works” inspired by the
work of Hans Bellmer (b.1902-1975) that have been abandoned from the collection,
which were created through a personal time period of the artist. These
photographs reflect “darker elements
touching on the impalpability of the self, and the omnipresence of illusion
and death” (Durand, 2006, p230) and
are titled “Sex Pictures, 1992”, “Horror & Surrealist Pictures” and “Masks”
both 1994-1996 and “Broken Dolls, 1999.”
In conclusion,
Cindy Sherman’s most enlightening collection of art is a must see as her
fantastic themes and concepts can be seen evolving through the course of nearly
forty years. Her work transforms from the grainy monochrome disposables to the
most recent digital manipulation technology while maintaining to address the
rolling female role in society.
“Cindy
Sherman.
February
26th-June 11th, 2012.
Museum
of Modern Art.
The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery.
6th floor.
Associate Curator- Eva Respini
Curatorial Assistant - Lucy Gallun
Department of Photography.”
“Tickets purchased online are
available at a reduced price. (Tickets purchased
in person at the Museum are priced as follows: Adults $25; Seniors $18;
Students $14.) Special exhibitions, audio programs, films, and gallery talks
are included in the price of admission.”
“Opening Times:
Monday-Thursday 1030-1700,
Friday 1030-2000,
Saturday-Sunday 1030-1730.”
http://www.moma.org
REFERANCES:
BOOKS
Bright, S. (2006). Introduction, In: N/A Art Photography Now. London:
Thames & Hudson Ltd. P13.
Bright, S. (2006). Portrait. In: N/A Art Photography Now. London: Thames
& Hudson Ltd. p20-21, 24-25.
Cotton, C. (2009). Revived & Remade. In: N/A The Photography As
Contemporary Art. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. p191-194.
Durand, R. (2006). Introduction. In: Paume De, J & Rouart, J Cindy
Sherman. Paris: International Publications, Inc. p230-269.
Golden, R (2008). Masters Of Photography. 2nd ed. London: C20th
Photography. p230-231.
Marien Warner, M (2011). Photography: A Cultural History. 3rd ed.
London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. p442-445, 451, 479, 484-486, 491.
ARTICLES
Glueck, G. (23/05/2003) Cindy Sherman: Centerfolds, 1981. New York Times
Hattenstone, S. (15/01/2011). CindySherman: Me, Myself & I, The
Guardian
Patterson, T (27/02/2012) Cindy Sherman at MOMA, Slate
Smith, R (23/02/2012), Photography’s Angel Provocateur: Cindy Sherman at
the Museum Of Modern Art, New York Times
Glueck, G (23/05/2003), Cindy Sherman -- 'Centerfolds, 1981' New York Times.
WEBSITES
Cindy Sherman Untitled #112 1982. Available:
http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/guggenheim/education/09.html. Last accessed
12/05/2012.
N/A. (2012). Cindy Sherman @ MoMA. Available:
http://dlkcollection.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/cindy-sherman-moma.html. Last
accessed 12/05/2012.
Halle, H. (2012). Review: Cindy Sherman. Available:
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/art/review-cindy-sherman. Last accessed
12/05/2012.
N/A. (2012). Cindy Sherman:
About the Exhibtion. Available:
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/cindysherman/about-the-exhibition/.
Last accessed 12/05/2012.
N/A. (2008). Cindy Sherman. Available:
http://www.skarstedt.com/exhibitions/2008-11-08_cindy-sherman/. Last accessed
12/05/2012.
Shubert, A. (2012). Disappearing
Act: Cindy Sherman ar MoMA. Available:
http://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2012/05/disappearing-act-cindy-sherman-at-moma.html.
Last accessed 12/05/2012.
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