Women Artists and the Female Form

Women Artists and the Female Form

"The still must tease with the promise of a story the viewer of it itches to be told."

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American born artist (b.1954) who grew up in Long Island. Her family was not particularly involved with the arts, so she developed her interest in the arts during her college days. She began with painting, but felt frustrated with its limitations and decided to pursue photography. She is one of the most esteemed photographers of the late twentieth century. Her work spans from the 1970s as a student in Buffalo to present day. Sherman portrays many facets and personas of the female identity throughout her photographs. With the exception of a few series in the 1980’s and 1990’s which featured disturbing and visceral images of doll parts, organic material, and human fluids, she is the sole subject of her photographs, which is fascinating in itself as it eliminates the usual chemistry depicted in and between the artist and subject. With her extensive and skilled use of wigs, prosthetics, makeup, costumes, and digital editing, she transforms herself into a myriad of personas and identities. “For Sherman the camera is a tool with which to explore the condition of representation and the myth that the photograph is an index of reality” (Slatkin page 266).

Sherman has enjoyed critical as well as financial success as an artist, with her work commanding high prices. In 1996 the Museum of Modern Art in New York purchased a complete series from her for one million dollars. In 1999, the average price of one of her photographs was $20,000 to $50,000 and one of her photographs from the series Film Stills fetched a cool $190,000 from a Christie’s auction. In 2011 Sherman’s 1981 portrai...

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...ve theme more than what the curators chose. I’m fascinated by Cindy Sherman’s work and will definitely be following her career more closely now, thanks to MoMA’s exhibition.

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Works Cited

"http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml." 2004. http://www.cindysherman.com. February 2014.

"http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/cindysherman/about-the-exhibition/." 2012. http://www.moma.org.

Rosenburg, Bonnie. "http://www.theartstory.org/artist-sherman-cindy.htm." n.d. http://www.theartstory.org. February 2014.

Slatkin, Wendy. "Contemporary Art: 1970-Present." Slatkin, Wendy. Women Artists in History: From Antiquity to the Present. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001. 266-267.

Smith, Roberta. "http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/arts/design/cindy-sherman-at-museum-of-modern-art.html." 23 February 2012. http://www.nytimes.com. February 2014.