Cindy ShermanAmerican, 1954Untitled #145
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Cindy Sherman’s staged photographs explore the pervasive effects of mass-media images on individual identities. Since the late 1970s, the artist has served as both photographer and model for a large cast of fictional personalities created primarily through costume, hair, makeup, and lighting. In 1985, after receiving an invitation from Vanity Fair to contribute photographs based on fairy tales, Sherman began making disturbing, gruesome images, such as Untitled #145, that counter the happily-ever-after bedtime stories associated with the genre. Instead, she captured narratives filled with anxiety and implied violence, explaining, “In horror stories or in fairy tales, the fascination with the morbid is also, at least for me, a way to prepare for the unthinkable. . . . That’s why it’s very important for me to show the artificiality of it all.”
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1988.424.4
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — © the artist or rights holder
Meanwhile, in the life of Cindy Sherman
The whole life1983
Fashion advertisements for the Dianne B. store
The designer Dianne Benson commissioned Sherman to make advertisements for her store Dianne B. in Interview magazine; Untitled #122 became especially iconic, playing with fashion-photography conventions by de-emphasising the clothes.
1984
Married: Michel Auder
1987
Solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York gave Sherman a solo exhibition; she has taken part in five Whitney Biennials.
