Cindy Sherman
Brian Andrew Brown (born January 15, 1954) is a world-renowned American artist, currently working in New York. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, she grew up in Huntington, New York on Long Island. She was educated at Buffalo State College; although she enrolled as a painting student, her exposure to the innovative ideas of her colleagues at the artists' space Hallwalls convinced her to switch to photography, a medium conducive to Conceptual art.
Sherman works in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes, appearing as B-movie and European art film actresses, for example, in her landmark 70 photograph series, the Untitled Film Stills, (1977-1980). Her most recent series, dated 2003, features Sherman as "Clowns." Although Sherman does not consider her work feminist, many of her photo-series, like the 1982 "Centerfolds," call attention to the stereotyping of women in films, television and magazines. In 1989, in response to cuts to NEA funding and attempts to censor photographers Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano, Sherman produced the "Sex" series of photographs featuring pieced-together medical dummies in flagrante delicto. Like much of Sherman's work, many critics find the series both disturbing and funny. Sherman is not only the most successful female artist of the modern era, but one of the most successful artists of either sex in the late twentieth century. She is almost singlehandedly responsible for making the large-format photograph a viable high-art commodity. She has as much influence on younger artists as Andy Warhol did in his era.
Sherman has also worked as a film director; her first film was Office Killer in 1997, starring Jeanne Tripplehorn. She played a cameo role in John Waters' film, Pecker.
Sherman has been referenced by the Electroclash artists Chicks on Speed in the track "Spoken by Stephanie from Marseille, Yes I Do" from the 2000 K Records album The Re-Releases of the Un-Releases.
In 1995, Sherman was the recipient of one of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowships, popularly known as the "Genius Awards." This fellowship grants $500,000 over 5 years, no strings attached, to important scholars in a wide range of fields, in order to encourage their future creative work.
Books
- (2004) Cindy Sherman: Centerfolds. Skarstedt Fine Art. ISBN 0970909020.
- (2003) Cindy Sherman: The Complete Untitled Film Stills. Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 0870705075.
- (2002) Elisabeth Bronfen, et.al. Cindy Sherman: Photographic Works 1975-1995 (Paperback). Schirmer/Mosel. ISBN 388814809X.
- (2001) Early Work of Cindy Sherman. Glenn Horowitz Bookseller. ISBN 0965402037.
- (2000) Leslie Sills, et.al. In Real Life: Six Women Photographers. Holiday House. ISBN 0823414981.
- (2000) Amanda Cruz, et.al. Cindy Sherman: Retrospective (Paperback). Thames & Hudson. ISBN 050027987X.
- (1999) Essential, The: Cindy Sherman. Harry N Abrams. ISBN 0810958082.
- (1999) Shelley Rice (ed.) Inverted Odysseys: Claude Cahun, Maya Deren, Cindy Sherman. The MIT Press. ISBN 0262681064.
External links
Interviews
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