Pattern by Elyse_Mallouk,
2 days ago
Change it!

Cindy Sherman

b. 1954

3 WORKS ONLINE OF 21 WORKS IN THE MUSEUM COLLECTION
COLLECT
LEARN MORE Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #35, 1979  88.50.4
Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #35, 1979. Gelatin silver print, 9 7/16 × 6 3/8 in. (24 × 16.2 cm). Edition no. 9/10. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Barbara and Eugene Schwartz  88.50.4
Since the late 1970s, Cindy Sherman has taken photographs of herself, dressed up as a variety of characters. To make her photographs, she does the jobs of both model and photographer, actor and director. The roles she has played include movie actresses, fashion models, characters in famous paintings and fairy tales, clowns, and older women. For Untitled Film Still #35, Sherman dressed up as a housewife in an old black-and-white movie.

While she was studying painting and film at the State University at Buffalo, New York, Cindy Sherman lived above a gallery in an old foundry and ice factory where she had a studio. She would often dress up and take photographs of herself.

“I’d be in my studio making up a character and then go out in character to join the party. I’d have put in all this energy into the makeup and I’d think, Why waste it.”

—Cindy Sherman

MORE WORK BY Cindy Sherman
3 WORKS
About the artist
Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 2008  2009.46

inspiration

“I was always glued to the television when I was a kid, and I loved movies.”

—Cindy Sherman

materials
Wigs

“I wanted to create something that people could relate to without having read a book about it beforehand. Something that would appeal to anybody at all.”

—Cindy Sherman

Films

Paper dolls

“One of the films I made was a 3-minute animation of myself as a paper doll that comes to life.”

—Cindy Sherman

Press About Contact FAQ Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy © 2013 Whitney Museum of American Art