Cindy Sherman – Photographic artist between role models and physicality

Photography – this is an art form that many people find almost familiar, because they have often held a camera themselves. Therefore, these people are all the more interested in what distinguishes their own pictures from those of professional photographers, and they enjoy learning about the photographers themselves and their work.

Among the leading figures in this field is the American Cindy Sherman, who caused a sensation primarily with various photo series in which she deals with role models and questions of identity , and in this context also with sexuality and physicality .

At the heart of Sherman's work lies the multitude of identity stereotypes that have emerged in art history as well as in the history of advertising, film, and media. Sherman reveals and dismantles these stereotypes and the mechanics of their production by creating series upon series of photographs that focus on specific image-making processes.

In most of her work, Sherman is model , photographer , and director . She regularly alters her appearance beyond recognition through makeup, prosthetics, and costumes. She draws her personas from a range of sources, including fairy tales, art history , film noir, and the fashion world . Her use of costumes and makeup fundamentally challenged the way portraits were viewed.

She is one of the most important 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 with humorous criticism to the mass media landscape surrounding them. For this, they appropriated images from advertising, film, television and magazines for their art .

Key milestones in the life of Cindy Sherman

• 1954 – Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey
• 1976 – BA in Photography from State University College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
• 1977 – Accepted into the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
• 1983 – Acceptance into the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship
• 1995 – Scholarship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Cindy Sherman lives and works in New York.

Childhood, education and early works

Cindy Sherman was born in 1954 in the small town of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, but grew up in Huntington (on Long Island, off the coast of New York). At that time, she was still called Cynthia Morris and was the youngest of five siblings; there was a 19-year age gap between her and the oldest Morris child. Her father was an avid camera collector, and she received her first camera at the age of 10.

She immediately and eagerly used it to give free rein to her imagination, but also to find her place in this family that had already existed for two decades. It was during this time that her photo book “That’s Me” , and in high school, the resourceful student first considered becoming an artist.

So, in the fall of 1972, Cindy began studying art at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Initially, she also practiced sculpture, painting, and drawing, but she quickly realized that photography had become, and would remain, her true artistic medium.

After graduating, she moved to New York in 1976 and married a video artist; this and subsequent marriages ended in divorce. Today, Cindy Sherman still lives in New York, most recently with musician and actor David Byrne .

Bus Riders

Even as a child, Cindy loved dressing up, but not the pretty ones with frills; rather, she preferred the ugly, funny, and bizarre ones. She began her now well-known artistic career with a series of self-portraits in a wide variety of costumes . During her studies, she created the series “ Untitled AD” and the series “ Bus Riders” .

From then on, it frequently happened that Sherman herself appeared in her works, not to be recognized, but as a surface for makeup, hairstyles, wigs, and the craziest clothes; these accessories gave Sherman a completely different look in every photograph.

The “Bus Riders”, for example, were women of very different ages, with different skin colors and recognizable by their clothing as being of different social backgrounds, all of whom were portrayed by Sherman (incidentally, down to the smallest detail, even the respective body posture always had to be correct).

Hallwalls and Artists Space

In 1975, Longo and Charles Clough opened the alternative art space Hallwalls , which still exists today and young artists . Through her work there, Cindy Sherman became part of the art scene and met important figures such as Martha Wilson , Dan Graham , Bruce Nauman , Nancy Holt, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Irwin, Richard Serra , and Katharina Sieverding. Art critics and curators like Lucy Lippard, Marcia Tucker, and Helene Winer were also part of her network.

Helene Winer directed the alternative Artists Space in New York and curated the 1977 exhibition “Pictures,” to which several Hallwalls artists, including Sherman, Longo, and Sherrie Levine , were invited. This exhibition led to the formation of the Pictures Generation , which became the leading young generation on the West Coast in the 1980s.

While working as a receptionist at the Artists Space (sometimes in disguise), Sherman simultaneously worked on her photographic series, which brought her international success in the early 1980s.

Rise to worldwide fame with a black and white photo series

From 1977 to 1980, Sherman created what is probably her best-known work, the “Untitled Film – Stills” . With this black and white photo series, which significantly advanced the concept of narrative photography, she achieved worldwide attention in the art world.

“Untitled Film – Stills” consists of 69 individually numbered but otherwise untitled photographs. In these stills of fictional film scenes, Sherman appears as an actress. In her disguise, she embodies a different cliché in each image, one that could have come directly from a B-movie of the 1940s or 1950s.

According to her own statement, Sherman only stopped with No. 69 because she could think of no more clichés.

Sherman changed and evolved. In her paintings, she depicts the diversity of human types and stereotypes. She often works in series and improvises on themes such as Centerfolds (1981) and Society Portraits (2008) . Untitled #216 from her History Portraits series (1981) illustrates her use of theatrical effects to embody different roles and her lack of attempt to conceal her efforts: often her wigs slip, her prostheses come loose, and her makeup is poorly blended.

She highlights the artificiality of these inventions, a metaphor for the artificiality of all identity constructions.

Switch to color film

Although she began her career with black and white photography, Sherman switched to color film in the early 1980s. Right at the beginning of the 1980s, she created the “Rear-Screen Projections” (1980). These are staged scenes that, through the use of rear-projection technology borrowed from film production, acquired strangely flat and unrealistic-looking backgrounds.

While she sometimes portrayed glamorous characters, Sherman was always more interested in the grotesque. In the 1980s and 1990s, series such as Disasters (1986–89) and Sex Pictures (1992) viewers with the strange and ugly aspects of humanity through explicit, visceral imagery.

At that time, images of sick bodies were seen in the news AIDS crisis

In these series and in all her work, Sherman subverts the visual shorthand we use to classify the world around us by drawing attention to the artificiality and ambiguity of these stereotypes and undermining their reliability for understanding a much more complicated reality.

In 1981, a minor scandal erupted when Sherman took several aerial photographs for Artforum magazine , in which the model—again Sherman in various self-portraits—moved in different poses on and around the ground. The camera's perspective appears very dominant, the model dreamy or anxious, perhaps even submissive; the fact that the poses were reminiscent of Playboy illustrations was entirely intentional.

Nevertheless, these images were not published at the time; the editor of Artforum was afraid they were too sexist. The “Fashion Photos” , playing far more subtly with the stereotypes by which femininity is viewed in society.

In 1985, Sherman discovered her second focus: the body in all its manifestations. Until 1989, she worked on the “Disasters” series, which consisted of meticulously arranged prostheses, excretions, earth, waste, and rotting food, representing horrific depictions of decay.

Sherman saw the trigger for these works in the disgust she felt when looking at the bodies of overly thin models in connection with the “fashion photos”; she retained such shock effects in her work from then on, but wanted them to be seen in a more fundamentally humorous way than the body torture in fashion photography.

From 1988 onwards, Sherman followed up with “History Portraits” , in which she transformed herself into models of historical paintings in the style of Old Masters; her role-playing theme was now transferred to art history in a masterful complexity of staging.

The “Sex Pictures” or “Mannequin Pictures” from 1992 were intended to shock once again; Sherman arranged mannequins, prostheses, and anatomical models performing sexual acts.

Cindy Sherman's 'Sex Pictures' – Gender as a Mask?

In her series of sex pictures, created in 1992, Sherman bid farewell to her own body. Previously, in earlier series, she had covered and supported parts of her body with prostheses and artificial limbs – especially when she wanted to show bare flesh.

Now she is having her body disappear in favor of medical mannequins that represent a realistic and anatomically correct replica of the human body.

The sex-themed images depict sexually suggestive scenes with the aforementioned dolls and doll parts, some of which are borrowed from pornography . The scenes are surrounded by shimmering, seemingly precious fabrics that create an artificial space distinct from the real environment.

This space serves as an experimental setup and further reinforces the artificiality of the dolls and their positioning.

This convincing depiction of naked plastic flesh and its bodily orifices takes place on a pretentious stage. The sexual aspect is heightened by accessories, and the mysterious darkness enveloping certain areas of the pictorial space creates a haunting lighting effect.

Towards moving images

For a photographer, the world of moving images doesn't seem entirely distant; Sherman also says that film has had a great influence on her.

However, she herself was not very comfortable with dynamic acting and storytelling through dialogues, which is why the artist, who so often appears in her own photographs, initially only appears in the film as “herself”, in 1986 in a video produced for public television by and about the New York art center “The Kitchen” (The Kitchen Presents: Two Moon July) and in 1998 in John Waters’ film “The Pecker”, a comedy about a flamboyant amateur photographer.

In 1997 she directed the feature film “Office Killer” , a bloody thriller which was shown at the Locarno International Film Festival and was well received by cinema audiences.

The 1000 Faces of Cindy Sherman

The American photographer has been portraying herself in multiple staged scenes for around 40 years, yet she is never recognizable. A retrospective in Paris reveals the many faces of Cindy Sherman.

Important exhibitions, collections and awards

Meanwhile, Sherman had been exhibited at documenta and the Biennales , and since then her work has been shown almost without interruption in many parts of the world; in 1994, at the age of 40, she was considered one of the classics of contemporary photographic art.

In 1995, the first retrospective of her work was shown at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg ; the Museum of Modern Art acquired a print of the complete “Untitled Film Stills” series for a record price and honored Sherman with a solo exhibition in 1997.

Her work is included in the collections of the Tate Gallery Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others . Sherman has received numerous awards, including the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in 1999 and a MacArthur Foundation grant in 1995.

ARTnews magazine as one of the ten best living artists, and in the same year she was appointed to the jury of the Venice International Film Festival.

In 2000, a new “Untitled Series” was created, which shows Sherman as various women in society, with all skin colors and all social backgrounds; in 2004, Sherman photographed herself for her project “Clowns” (2004) in clown masks and clown costumes in front of computer-generated, colorful backgrounds.

In 2007, a retrospective exhibition was held at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, showcasing works by the artist from 30 years (1975 – 2005). In 2012, “That's me-That's Not Me” and other early works by Cindy Sherman were exhibited at the Vertical Gallery in Vienna, and shortly afterwards the Museum of Modern Art in New York retrospective to the artist .

Further solo exhibitions:

For nearly half a century, the American artist Cindy Sherman has explored the theme of fashion and integrated it into her artistic practice. The exhibition “Anti-Fashion” focuses on her photographic work and illuminates it from a new perspective .

The interplay between fashion and art becomes clear, as Sherman uses her collaborations with renowned designers and her numerous commissions from magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar as a constant source of inspiration.

Conversely, the artist continues to influence the aesthetics of the fashion world and provides essential impetus for an entire generation of photographers. Through the medium of photography, fashion and visual art have always been in dialogue, but Cindy Sherman goes further by questioning the entire system with all its flaws.

Her interest in the fashion world reveals a subversive attitude towards what it represents. In her photographs, she depicts figures who are anything but desirable, thus contradicting all conventions of haute couture and the usual notions of beauty.

Last but not least, the topic of fashion proves to be a starting point for the artist's critical questions about gender , stereotypes and dealing with aging .

Sherman's wide range of characters demonstrates the artificiality and mutability of identity, which appears more selectable, (self-)constructed and fluid than ever before.

Small showcase

The following short video offers a glimpse into the works and creative process of this extraordinary artist. The footage was produced in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art .

You can view more videos and productions by Cindy Sherman directly on the Museum of Modern Art website.

Here you will find numerous works and photographs by the artist:

• MoMA – Cindy Sherman
• The Broad: Cindy Sherman Collection

TV documentary by SWR/ARTE

Sherman is a master of staged photography; world-famous and yet virtually unknown. The photographic artist has not given any television interviews for several years; she is considered extremely media-shy.

Therefore, this film by SWR and ARTE the work of Cindy Sherman in the foreground; it reviews all her major photo series – her legendary black and white classics, the “Filmstills” , as well as her fashion photos or her most recent works, the “Clowns” .

The exhibition showcases and discusses a comprehensive photographic work of art that has evolved over 30 years, yet consistently pursues one major theme: the image of women in society.

The award-winning artist has always emphasized that she works more spontaneously than to think long about each of her productions, yet in her work she delivers an impressive and profound analysis of the people in our society.

Sources and literature recommendations on Cindy Sherman

• The Cindy Sherman Effect. Identity and Transformation in Contemporary Art, ed. by Ingried Brugger and Bettina M. Busse (exhibition catalogue Kunstforum Wien, 29.1.–21.6.2020), Munich 2020.
• Cindy Sherman, ed. v. Eva Respini (exhibition cat. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Dallas Museum of Art) New York 2012.
• Phoebe Hoban, The Cindy Sherman Effect, in: Art News, 2012, n.p.
• Ingelfinger, A. (1999). Gender as a mask? Cindy Sherman's 'Sex Pictures'. Freiburg Women's Studies, 1, 41-60. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-315672