Profile: Cindy Sherman
Affiliated Movements: Contemporary Art. Minimalism, Earth Art
Affiliated Artists:
Andy Warhol
Jeff Wall
Robert Mapplethorpe
Jimmy DeSana
Jenny Holzer
* The placement of other artists in the same category is purely for didactic purposes - any number alternate criteria could result in a different choice. This list is chosen by suggesting other artists, mostly working at the same point in time and whose work might evoke similar questions in the viewer.
Cindy Sherman, Unititled Film Still #14, 1978.
The Untitled Film Stills
The Untitled Film Stills are black and white photographs wherein Sherman portrays herself as an unnamed actress in shots recalling the imagery of foreign films, Hollywood pictures, B-movies, and film noir. Most of the photos were taken in her apartment. Sherman reveals gender as an ambiguous and constructed position, which suggests that there is no innate biological female identity. As Sherman argues, “I’m trying to make other people recognize something of themselves rather than me.”