Cindy Sherman

 

Born 1954, Glen Ridge, New Jersey; lives and works in New York City.

 

Cindy Sherman is particularly well known for her practice of photographing herself under various guises. Her self-portraits—which combine photography with elements of performance art—offer critiques of gender stereotypes that have arisen throughout the history of art, cinema, and television. She received early acclaim for her “Untitled Film Stills” (1977-80), a series of 69 photographs in which she enacted female clichés of 20th-century pop culture. While her work calls into question historical notions of gender and identity, Sherman maintains that her works are open to interpretation and do not necessarily have an explicit message or narrative.

 

Works by Cindy Sherman are held in the permanent collections of the Tate Modern, London; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Australian National Gallery; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, among many others.

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