CINDY SHERMAN RETROSPECTIVE
A Blockbuster in Paris
The Covid-delayed but highly anticipated retrospective Cindy Sherman at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is finally open. The exhibition premiered in September and brings together 170 works by Sherman from 1975 to 2020. The American photographer is known for her elaborate, disguised self-portraits that comment on social role-playing, gender, and identity.
For the exhibition’s forward, Bernard Arnault, president of LVMH writes, “Since her, so famous Film Stills series in 1977, in which she created her own imagined movie characters, Cindy Sherman has depicted herself in myriad personas – Botticelli’s Venus, a star in the golden age of Hollywood, a bourgeoise in a portrait by Ingres, a love-struck woman waiting by the phone, a fashionista backstage at a runway show, a witch, an ogre and, more recently, a modern-day dandy. In her latest series, she even becomes a couple, appearing as both genders, masculine and feminine.”
Sherman was born in 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. She was the youngest of five children with a 9-year gap between her and her next sibling. In a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Sherman explains her desire to take on other characters as a way to be noticed, “It was strange because it was like I wasn’t part of their family when I arrived because they had already existed for so many years before I came along.” I thought: if you don’t like me like this, maybe you will like me like this? With curly hair? Or like this?”
Sherman creates her photographs alone in her studio and is the director, makeup artist, hairstylist, wardrobe expert, and model. Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980) was a series of black and white photographs that brought her international recognition. Sherman poses in different roles and settings, producing images typical of Italian neorealism or American film noir of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Sherman, a brilliant chameleon, exposes Manhattan’s aging socialites in Society Portraits (2008), femininity in Sex Pictures (1992), and History Portraits (1988-1990).
The retrospective in Paris is the largest exhibit of the artist’s work in Europe. It covers her entire career while focusing on her creations since the beginning of the last decade, including a series of very recent and previously unseen works. “She has taken on many roles that each of us would perhaps like to play, but have never dared to attempt,” said Arnault.
Cindy Sherman at the Fondation Louis Vuitton on view through January 3, 2021.
