-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISUAL EXPLORATION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

12 May 2012

WK16: FINAL EXHIBITION REVIEW

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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