The Museum of Modern Art,
New York

Cindy Sherman
Through June 11, 2012

Special Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor

The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019

(212) 708-9400

MoMA.org

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The Museum of Modern Art, New York, presents the exhibition Cindy Sherman, a retrospective tracing the groundbreaking artist’s career from the mid-1970s to the present. The exhibition brings together some 170 key photographs from the artist’s significant series—including the complete “Untitled Film Stills” (1977–80), centerfolds (1981), and the celebrated history portraits (1988–90)—plus examples from all of her most important bodies of work, ranging from her fashion photography of the early 1980s to the breakthrough sex pictures of 1992 to her 2003–04 clowns and monumental 2008 society portraits. In addition, the exhibition features the American premiere of her 2010 photographic mural, presented outside the entrance to the galleries on the Museum’s sixth floor.

Masquerading as a myriad of characters in front of her own camera, Sherman creates invented personas and tableaus that examine the construction of identity, the nature of representation, and the artifice of photography. Her works speak to an increasingly image-saturated world, drawing on the unlimited supply of visual material provided by movies, TV, magazines, the Internet, and art history. To create her photographs, Sherman works unassisted in her studio and assumes multiple roles as photographer, model, art director, make-up artist, hairdresser, and stylist. Whether portraying a career girl or a blond bombshell, a fashion victim or a clown, a French aristocrat or a society lady of a certain age, for over 35 years this relentlessly adventurous artist has created an eloquent and provocative body of work that resonates deeply with our visual culture.

Cindy Sherman will travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (July 14–October 7, 2012); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (November 10, 2012–February 17, 2013); and Dallas Museum of Art (March 17–June 9, 2013).

PUBLICATION:
Cindy Sherman is accompanied by a 264-page publication. Text by exhibition curator Eva Respini, contribution by art historian Johanna Burton, and conversation between Sherman and filmmaker John Waters.

The catalogue is available in English, German, French, and Spanish.

RELATED EXHIBITION:
Carte Blanche: Cindy Sherman
April 2–10, 2012
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1, MoMA

Carte Blanche: Cindy Sherman is presented in conjunction with the retrospective exhibition Cindy Sherman. Film—the common cultural language of our era—has had a profound influence on Sherman and is an inspiration for much of her work. Ranging from camp to horror to classic art films, Sherman’s choices reflect the artist’s diverse interests and influences. As the “Curator’s Choice,” one screening features Sherman’s 1976 short film Doll Clothes, followed by her feature film Office Killer (1997). Visit MoMA.org for a full schedule.

PUBLIC PROGRAM:
Cindy Sherman: Circle of Influence
March 26, 2011, 6:00 p.m.
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2, MoMA

Artists working in a variety of mediums explore Cindy Sherman’s influence on contemporary art practice, including issues such as feminism and identity. Panelists include George Condo, Elizabeth Peyton, Collier Schorr, and Kalup Linzy. Moderated by Eva Respini, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art.

WEBSITE:
A comprehensive website accompanies Cindy Sherman. In addition to featuring the complete selection of images that appear in the exhibition, MoMA has commissioned exclusive video content for the site, in which artists, filmmakers, art historians, and cultural critics speak about their favorite work by Sherman.

The exhibition is organized by Eva Respini, Associate Curator, with Lucy Gallun, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Photography.

Major support for the exhibition is provided by Agnes Gund, Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, The Modern Women’s Fund, and The William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund.

Additional funding is provided by The Broad Art Foundation, David Dechman and Michel Mercure, Robert B. Menschel, Allison and Neil Rubler, Richard and Laura Salomon, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Glenstone, Michèle Gerber Klein, Richard and Heidi Rieger, Ann and Mel Schaffer, and The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.

edit to add, three minutes later: this is perhaps a weird segue, but I was talking about this earlier today, having seen the article in yesterday’s Times about the young man who starred as an exaggerated version of himself in “Degrassi High” which I’ve never seen, and died five years ago but was just now identified as being Neil Hope, 35. I was also reading and not liking, slagging even, Jeannette Walls and also thinking about Stew (“Passing Strange”) and fictionalized versions of life, and Dao Strom especially the racy parts I’ve apparently never read from “Gentle Order”, and Augusten Burroughs who I don’t think I met but I have distinct memories of people describing him, unfavorably. We all tend to self-mythologize but watch out for Faust, Icarus and many other classic Promethian pitfalls. I took a UC extension class with a Jungian therapist named I think William Sherwood, who had a horrible sway back, on literature and Orestia — classics — and he said, which I think the Dalai Lama said a version of this apropos of the Holocaust, “we always get what we want.” Jeannette Walls did say something like that, in “the glass castle” in the scene at Barnard with the Jewish professor of soci and whether the homeless want to be homeless. I also think that or wonder if JW knew about Sonic Youth “Daydream nation” and its use of Gerhard Richter candle painting, in her final scene.

We thought it classic or dramatic irony that the scene included a toast to her dead alcoholic father, Rex Walls (who I called Wrecks Walls).

Perhaps going to far: think also “into the wild” which I do recall as a Sunday Chronicle “sunday punch – was that actually its name the section — when it was news, chris mccandless was that his name? and then who seb junger wrote about it(?) and then jerry hannan, who I ironically enough bought luggage with in chicago in fall 2000 on tour — I have a photo of he I and Trouz outside the luggage store with matching kenneth cole black overnight bags, although Chris Cuevas quickly returned his for something more practical — I still have mine and beat the crap out of it. I thought the tell on the Alaska dude saga was something about the parents and either alcholism or abuse — seemed omenous but not stressed. but good song, jer bear, about “society”. Eddie Vedder. We are all souls playing roles and shards mowing yards. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/arts/television/neil-hope-dies-at-35-degrassi-actor-whose-life-unraveled.html

the word “unraveled” above makes me want to swap my “yard” for “yarn” somehoe, also “yarn” as tale…45 minutes too much on big wiry today…is “wiry” a word? “wire-y”

i thought of an idea for some music avails in june: plastic alto whirld muse (sic) daze, a multi-part event bridging solstice, make music, francophilia, downtown versus parks per se, lytton plaza, cogswell plaza, a picture of robert johnson speaking of faust in a turban and playing the don cherry african harp, icobopa, vichy vs vc and more.