About the most expensive contemporary female selfie artist Cindy Sherman
Recent photos of Cindy Sherman 2020
Cindy Sherman (1954-) was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, USA. Her father is an engineer and her mother is a university teacher. The youngest of five children, she attended Buffalo College at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She likes photography and is good at dressing up as female identities in society and in various historical periods, and reflects the characters' inner character traits and spiritual outlook through selfies. She is a pioneering artist who is a famous female photographer and film director in the United States. She is one of the most expensive artists in the field of contemporary photography.
Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Photo No. 15 (Series: Works without Series), 1978
In 1980, the Metropolitan Image Gallery in New York held her first solo exhibition in her life. In 1987, at the age of 33, Sherman held a large-scale solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum. She has participated in four Venice Biennales and served as co-curator of the exhibition section of the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. In addition, his works have participated in five Whitney Biennials, two Sydney Biennales and the 1983 Kassel Documenta (Germany). He has won the Takamatsu Memorial World Culture Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the MacArthur Foundation Award and the Guggenheim Foundation Award.
Untitled No. 67, 1980, Cindy Sherman
In 1999, she was selected as one of the most influential female artists in the 20th century by the American "Art News" magazine. On November 6, 2018, Cindy Sherman held her first large-scale solo exhibition at a Chinese contemporary art institution (Shanghai Fosun Art Center). A total of 128 representative photographic works from different historical periods and series as well as related documents and video materials were exhibited. In 2020, the National Portrait Gallery in London is planning a large-scale retrospective exhibition on his personal theme.
Cindy Sherman Untitled No. 585 (Series: Works with no series), 2017
Cindy Sherman’s photographic works are basically completed with prepared scripts. Her "self-portraits" are not the current fashionable narcissistic poses (using mobile phones to take random selfies). As early as when she was a student, she began to try various self-written, directed and self-acted poses, such as the 1976 "Murder Mystery", in which she played a trendy girl who was intertwined with love and hate, and used various seduction methods to murder betrayers. Her real debut work was the 1977 "Untitled Movie Stills" series, especially work No. 21, which can be regarded as a classic in the history of photography. When these works (69 in total) were exhibited in the Urban Image Gallery, they aroused strong responses from all walks of life.
Murder Mystery, 1976, Cindy Sherman
Most of the characters she plays are ladies and trendy girls from various periods in the United States. Most of these characters examine and reflect on men's aesthetic experience of women from a female perspective. Her purpose is to break the male aesthetic hegemony. Sherman's schooling coincided with the rise of the Western feminist movement. Feminism conceptually advocated entering the world without makeup (in order to have the same checks and balances as men). Sherman was fond of all kinds of fashionable costumes at the time (including heavy makeup). This is why she used various costumes to create works during her schooling. Not only did she challenge the aesthetic experience centered on male chauvinism, but she also had to be wary of the blind self-restraint and norms brought about by the feminist movement.
Cindy Sherman
The status of women in society is constantly rising with the progress of society. If women and men must maintain the so-called right of checks and balances, women's right to supplement their image will inevitably be lost (makeup and various fashionable clothing are women's unique right to choose). Historical data proves that every new trend movement will face various consequences of worrying about gains and losses.
Cindy Sherman Cover Girl (Vogue) (Series: No series), 1975
The 1981 "Untitled Movie Still" No. 96 was a turning point in Cindy Sherman's photography career. This self-portrait successfully changed hands in 2011 for a high price of US$3.8905 million, setting a new auction record for a single photograph in the market in the same year. This work depicts the image of young girls in the United States around the 1920s, and the clothing shows a strong sense of nostalgia.
Untitled No. 96, 1981, Cindy Sherman
The composition of her works is very different from the past, using a lens that is close to a close-up to capture the image. Deliberately reducing the inherent connection between the background and the characters, this eccentric shooting technique undoubtedly leaves the viewer with a sense of coercion. This creative technique, which was obviously deconstructive , left a lingering memory in the American photography community at that time. Everyone who was optimistic about the work at that time all praised Sherman's courage! Of course, there are many people with opposing views.
Untitled No. 92, 1981, Cindy Sherman
Another example is the work "Untitled Movie Stills" No. 92. She believes that this approach seriously damages the media role of photography in reproducing reality. Sherman deliberately presents a way of viewing that is similar to fetishism, which is intolerable to those who like the inherent way of presenting images (the work does not present a so-called comfortable perspective). In Sherman's own words, "I deliberately tried to have a thorough confrontation with collectors and critics. This was my 'little rebellion.'"
Cindy Sherman, "Untitled No. 414", 2003, Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York Cindy Sherman
"Untitled" No. 210 "Murder Mystery" "Untitled" No. 414
In addition to playing female roles in her works, she sometimes chooses to play men. However, many of the male roles she plays are misappropriations and tampering with images in traditional classic oil paintings. Some are clown-like characters. For example, in "Untitled" No. 210 (1989), she uses the technique of cross-dressing as a man and a woman, dressing herself up as a jazz figure in classical oil paintings. "Untitled" No. 414 (2003) plays the image of a clown (also choosing a male role), etc. In the works she created between 1988 and 1990 and between 2003 and 2004, her continuous exploration and analysis of female identity made her gradually realize that "authenticity" has a deceptive side in daily life, and the "reality" seen with the eyes may not be the "reality" she is pursuing deep in her heart.
Untitled No. 210, 1989, Cindy Sherman’s cross-dressing as a man
In the process of dressing up different characters, different personalities, and different identities (including men), Sherman began to use various props such as masks, wigs, fruit bowls, etc. to hide herself and hide herself in the character she was playing. After the object, as the self-centeredness gradually fades and shatters, the artist expands his self without limit until it coincides with the role he plays. However, from the perspective of the same identity, the actor and the person being acted can often stimulate the viewer to unexpectedly discover and reflect on the self from a female or male perspective.
Murder Mystery, 1976, Cindy Sherman
From the beginning to the peak of her career, Sherman has always used a large number of costumes and props to narrate images, and her symbolic expressions once made Andy Warhol were all fascinated by it: "She was born to be an actor." In a sense, playing real characters and fictional characters is nothing more than a matter of changing tastes for Sherman. She never seeks a breakthrough for the next role from theoretical derivation. When she faced the relationship between photography and painting, she felt that there was no issue of before and after, only a matter of selectivity.
Cindy Sherman Untitled No. 70 (Series: Works with no series), 1980
She said more than once in an interview (Jenny Siegel had a long talk with her in Sherman’s studio in 1987), “I hate its technology, and I hate people who are obsessed with photography technology." Then when Siegel asked her if she was willing to try to use painting to express her ideas, Sherman hesitated! It was obvious that her attitude towards photography was both love and hate. Then she said: "I have painted before, but I don't have a good art history background. My painting concept only stays at the level of replicating objects.
Cindy Sherman Self-portrait Photography
When I learned that what I drew was a very outdated thing, I categorically chose to give up! Because painting makes me unable to find the meaning of existence. "In the interview, Sherman also talked about the influence of advertising and movies on her. "I have always been interested in advertising in magazines and on television from a human and fictional perspective. But it never occurred to me to include it in my work. I am interested in avant-garde films and suspense dramas. During my childhood, I was often immersed in the fog of soap operas alone. As an adult, my interest is to go to movie theaters instead of going to art galleries to see so-called works of art. "
Cindy Sherman's self-portrait photography
Now that self-media is so developed, looking at every user in the global village, mobile phones have long occupied most of people's lives. Faced with the ubiquitous Internet celebrities and traffic stars today, Cindy Sherman's pioneering nature has long faded out of the public's vision. Who in the art museum today will still chatter about the conceptual issues in photography works? However, Cindy Sherman Sherman's self-portrait images are still changing in an unpredictable way. Don't forget, the eye-catching auction market will never end!
Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Photo No. 21 (Series: No Series), 1978
