For four decades, photographer Cindy Sherman has created an incredible body of work based around impersonation and archetypes. Combining a love of fashion with endless curiosity for the grotesque and strange, she has developed the ability to seamlessly slip from one persona to another. Her chameleon-like sensibility has turned her into the David Bowie of the photography world, as well as one of the most influential modern photographers. And starting today, you can see the definitive retrospective of Sherman's work at the Museum Of Modern Art.
The exhibit brings together more than 170 photographs from the artist's career from the mid-1970s to the present. That includes her groundbreaking series "Untitled Film Stills" (1977-80) (Sherman in stereotypical female roles inspired by 1950s and 1960s films), her ornate history portraits (1989-90) (in which she poses as aristocrats and milkmaids in the manner of old master paintings), and her larger-than-life society portraits (2008) that address the representation of aging in the context of contemporary obsessions with youth and status.
As you can see in the preview images above, there are also disturbing clowns, anti-erotic poses, and her most recent untitled work, in which she embraced CGI in order to digitally alter her face. The retrospective will be at MoMA from today through June 11—and in conjunction with it, Sherman has also selected films (including Rear Window and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) that have informed her work. "Carte Blanche: Cindy Sherman" will be shown April 2-10.
