Cindy Sherman

American (b. 1954)
Untitled, 1978
Gelatin-silver print
Museum purchase and National Endowment for the Arts     89.99
© Cindy Sherman

When I prepare each character I have to consider what I’m working against: that people are going to look under the makeup and wigs for that common denominator, the recognizable.  I’m trying to make other people recognize something of themselves rather than just me.

Among the most famous of contemporary artists, conceptual photographer Cindy Sherman has made a career of portraying herself in a thousand different guises.  In the series Complete Untitled Film Stills (1978–80), her disguised self-images consciously resemble stolen publicity shots of unknown, yet seemingly familiar, movie actresses.  The actress in Untitled seems small and even lost in the oversized chair in which she sits.  Her gaze wanders, her cigarette slowly burns.  As viewers we long to create a narrative.  We pick out details—her hair, stockings, shoes—to define who she is.  In so doing, we underscore how superficial our judgments of others often are.  The connection between who we are versus what we wear is a theme also explored in the work of Mary Ellen Mark and Karen LaMonte, on view nearby.