CINDY SHERMAN

The exhibition includes the groundbreaking Untitled Films Stills (1977 – 1980), through which Sherman came to widespread attention as one of the ‘Pictures Generation’ artists who gained prominence in the 1970s and ‘80s responding to the age of mass media and celebrity. This pivotal series will be juxtaposed with Sherman’s large-format portrayals of film stars, starlets, society women and fashionistas from various series made over subsequent decades, addressing the layered presentation and public perception of femininity.

As the 20th-century cult of fame and celebrity has transitioned into the 21st-century context of influencers and social media stars, Sherman’s deconstructions of gender, wealth and privilege remain of acute relevance. Sherman’s work reveals to us the degree to which we all construct and perform our identities; each iteration of her performance is a new and unique character. Through these images she has become the leading exponent of the subgenre which combines performance with photography, drawing our attention to the fact that identity is complex, constructed and performed.

It was from this project that the Flappers series developed from 2016 to 2018, focusing on the young women who challenged social norms and fashions in the 1920s as a form of empowerment, emancipation and radical modernity, some emulating Hollywood stars, who pose in glamorous attire with heavy and stylised makeup. The series also addresses aging; however, the protagonists are shown decades from their heyday seemingly unaware they are past their prime. Nevertheless, Sherman’s depictions seem more nuanced and sympathetic than the harsh image of Norma Desmond, the archetypal deluded silent-era actress in Sunset Boulevard.

Pre-dating the Film Stills, are works from Sherman’s Bus Riders and Murder Mystery series, both created in 1976, and a selection of the Line Up images, made in 1977, all while she was still a student at Buffalo State College in upstate New York. Highlighting the foundations of Sherman’s conceptual thinking, the ‘Bus Riders’ embody a range of cultural stereotypes and everyday personalities across American society, harnessing poses, clothes and facial expressions that bring familiar characters to life.

The Cindy Sherman Legacy Project (CSLP) is a new initiative established to apply and systematize best available technologies to protect the condition of artist Cindy Sherman’s works in the photographic medium. The goal is to ensure that future generations can view the artist’s works in the condition she intended and to support appreciation for, scholarship on, and further understanding of her groundbreaking oeuvre.