Cindy Sherman

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Cindy Sherman

Terror and mockery come together in the portraits of Cindy Sherman on display at the Crocker Art Museum. Walking into the large, dimly lit ballroom, one may begin to feel a slight sense of trepidation as the viewer looks around to find nine sets of beady eyes watching one’s every move. Sherman produced her History Portraits during the late eighties and early nineties, nine of which are displayed at the museum. In her portraits she uses lush fabrics, lavish jewelry, and false body parts to decorate herself in these self-portraits. Her portraits have been know to cause discomfort in the viewers who find the general stereotypes, depicted in her portraits, amusing, yet confusing and terrorizing.

Sherman’s Untitled #225 (Blond Woman) triggers those exact emotions.

The portrait is a large colored photograph created in 1990. An eighteenth century

blond, Madonna-like, young lady sits poised with one hand on her exposed artificial breast as if she is nursing a baby. She is well dressed in a blue satin dress, small white beads laced through her braided hair, and a tiara atop her head. Her icy, blue eyes stare off to the left with a harsh, cold expression. With her breast aimed high, spewing fluids, in the same direction as she stares, it is difficult to imagine what is going through her head, however it is clear that it is something of an almost vindictive and unforgiving nature. Possibly, she points her breast toward a man who betrayed her or harass...

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