Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an interesting post-modernist artist for several reasons. Her photography is intriguing because it takes so many different forms, from a beautiful woman from the 1960’s on the set of a movie, to a tattered and worn looking woman trying too hard to be beautiful, to a horrific looking clown. Some of these photographs are more cohesive with others, as her subjects vary greatly. In her early years, she took photographs of herself that were not self-portraits, but of personas that she took on. It is interesting to see them because all of her personas in this time know they are being watched and as a result are more venerable. They also as a whole tell a story, which is hard to figure out. She almost reproduced “the gaze” that was in much earlier artist’s works, for instance, some early twentieth century painters like Bouguereau.
This is a huge contrast to her later work. She changed subjects dramatically, to where they were more bizarre, more empty, and eventually, all associated with death. She always had some sexual undertones in her early work but at the end, the images of the blow-up dolls are pornographic. It is disturbing to look at, and repulses most viewers. It is hard to think what ideas she might be trying to convey in these photographs because of how disturbing they are to the average viewer. One theme that I did find from her work overall is how beauty fades, and identity is lost, and inevitable death ensues. This is a very pessimistic view on life, however that may have been how Cindy Sherman wanted her viewers to think of life.