Cindy ShermanAmerican, 1954Untitled #212
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Not receiving at present
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, 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 untitled photograph of herself in the guise of a Renaissance woman is overtly disconcerting. Her opulent dress and jewel-adorned hair run counter to her awkward, false nose. Though piously folded, her reddened hands suggest hard work. The coloration beneath her eyes betrays a very real woman, while the classical column suggests an idealized European society portrait. By using extensive makeup and costuming, Sherman has conspicuously constructed a prototype of a Renaissance woman. It is the visibility of the real woman beneath the artifice that makes the photograph so unsettling.
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By emphasizing the artificial and the grotesque, Sherman urges viewers to look beyond the surfaces and consider portraits as constructions designed to serve a social, political, or even erotic purpose. Sherman's critique is as relevant for portraiture today, in which digital photography enables easy manipulation of images to suit the sitter's purpose. Her photographs suggest that identity is interconnected with one’s outward appearance.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- 2010.23
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures
Meanwhile, in the life of Cindy Sherman
The whole life1987
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.
1990
“They aren't self-portraits”: The New York Times
Sherman told The New York Times that she feels anonymous in her work: looking at the pictures she never sees herself, and sometimes she simply disappears.
early 1990s
Covers and a video for Babes in Toyland
Sherman worked with the Minneapolis band Babes in Toyland, providing photographs for the covers of the albums Fontanelle and Painkillers and a stage backdrop for their concerts, and acting in the video for “Bruise Violet”.
1991
A show at the Kunsthalle Basel; a Billy Bragg song
The Kunsthalle Basel gave Sherman a solo exhibition, and the British musician Billy Bragg dedicated the song “Cindy of 1000 Lives” to her and her work.
1991–2005
A loft on Mercer Street in SoHo
Sherman lived in a fifth-floor co-op loft at 84 Mercer Street; she later sold it to the actor Hank Azaria and bought two floors of a building overlooking the Hudson in West SoHo — one her apartment, the other her studio and office.
