Cindy Sherman was only 10 when she began dabbling in photography. It’s a touching anecdote: underneath each photo she took the time to write “that’s me” to establish her identity and reinforce it with evidence. Today, she has become so famous precisely because she doesn’t show herself, doesn’t reveal herself. She hides this “me” and disguises it through setups in which she appears as an actress, playing different female roles and annihilating the very definition of identity. Cindy Sherman is fascinating, surprising, and impressive, her art conceptual, unique, and original. The artist uses herself as a model for her photographs. She is the source of inspiration for her work and is the center of attention in a multitude of different stagings. It is because of her multiple series of caricatural self-portraits, questioning the female identity, that she has become the artist she is today.
Sherman always incarnates a different character. The artist doesn’t talk about herself, but about women, society and its rules, its values, its stereotypes, and its clichés. Sherman even stated: “It’s wrong to think that I do self-portraits. I act exactly like an actor, an actress.” Her 1977 series “Film Stills” earned her international recognition. She created a unique mise en scène and interpreted different stereotypes of female figures: femme fatale, housewife, damsel in distress… After applying heavy amounts of makeup and disguising herself, she puts herself in the shoes of the characters as if she were an actress. And that’s exactly what she is; she tries to represent the world as she sees it through her work, by inventing these characters.
Sherman said about her work: “Even though I’ve never actively thought of my work as feminist or as a political statement, certainly everything it was drawn from my observations as a woman in this culture.” In her series “Fashion” (1983-1984 and 1993-1994) and “Sex Pictures” in 1992, she depicts models from magazines and the television. Then, in “History Portraits” (1989-1990), she dresses up like a china doll that looks to be straight out of a Raphael painting. The motif of horror can be found in works like “Fairy Tale” (1985), “Disasters” (1986-1989), and “Horrors and Surrealist Pictures” (1994-1996).
The incredible exhibit “Cindy Sherman: Early Works” can be found at the Gucci museum in Florence from now until June 9, 2013. You’ll be able to admire this renowned, stunning artist in every role imaginable! Indeed, the Gucci museum is right now presenting the famous photographer’s very first works that made a name for themselves in contemporary art. You’ll be able to admire Sherman in diverse costumes through her work “Murder Mystery People” (1976) or in the shoes of different bus passengers to Buffalo with her series “Bus Riders” (1976). These works demonstrate Sherman’s impressive fascination for identity and gender. “The story of troubles, passions, and creativity is fascinating here”, said Francesca Amfitheatrof, director of the Gucci museum since 2011.
Cindy Sherman: Early Works
Until June 9, 2013
The Gucci museum- Florence, Italy
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