About Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman (b. 1954, Glen Ridge, New Jersey) is an American artist and one of the most influential figures in contemporary photography. She studied painting at the State University of New York at Buffalo, graduated in 1976 and turned to photography. Cindy Sherman usually works alone, in her own studio, and photographs herself in costume, make-up and wigs. She does not regard these photographs as self-portraits, because she is not trying to express anything about herself. She plays characters, as an actress does on stage or in film.
Her breakthrough was the series Untitled Film Stills (1977–1980), black-and-white photographs in which she appears in settings designed to look like scenes from films. Later series include Centerfolds (1981), Fashion (1983–84), Fairy Tales (1985), the Disaster series (1986–89) and History Portraits (1989–90). The artworks of Cindy Sherman range from the glamorous to the grotesque, and she keeps their stories open-ended so that viewers can imagine their own. In 1997 she directed the horror comedy Office Killer.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York presented The Complete Untitled Film Stills in 1997 and a large retrospective of her work in 2012. She received the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in 1999 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2016. In 2014 Cindy Sherman designed a complete issue of the German daily newspaper Die Welt, announcing 35 previously unshown works for it, and signed a limited edition print of its front page. Her artwoks are held in museums and collections worldwide.
