Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

Apr 2, 2016–Apr 2, 2017

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Entry Gallery, Floor 6

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Selected works from the sixth-floor entry gallery appear in this section.

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UNTITLED, 2008

Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 2008

In Human Interest

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Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 2008

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Narrator: A woman glances over her shoulder, framed by signs of luxury: elaborate jewelry, a hint of a ball gown, and a palatial formal garden. Her gaze is rather haughty, but also seems to hint at something else—perhaps dissatisfaction or bitterness. At the very least, her face betrays a struggle with her advancing age. Her mouth is pinched and wrinkled, while her forehead seems almost too smooth, and her hair unnaturally dark.

This photograph comes from a series of society portraits by Cindy Sherman. To make these images, Sherman transformed her own appearance using wigs, thick pancake makeup, and costumes. She photographed herself against a green screen, and then Photoshopped her images into opulent backgrounds. The resulting characters seem artificial, and at odds with their surroundings.

Sherman made her society portraits in 2008, when the real estate bubble had hit its peak and the economy was on the verge of collapse. The works suggest an age of excess, a status-obsessed society. This image seems, in part, to critique that society—even to mock its members, cruelly exposing their flaws. At the same time, though, there is something tragic about the work, as if the woman were caught in a trap that is largely self-imposed. 

This untitled work is one of a suite of large-scale photographs in which Cindy Sherman masquerades as an assortment of dowagers and aging socialites. The bejeweled and heavily made-up subject poses in front of the Belvedere Steps in Central Park as if about to ascend the staircase to attend a party or charity event. Her world-weary expression reveals the years that her makeup, strapless gown, and dyed hair attempt to mask. Like all of Sherman’s photographs that feature the artist in various guises, this work critically examines the conditions under which contemporary femininity is constructed, represented, and perceived.

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Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

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