Sammlung Goetz

CINDY SHERMAN
29 January – 8 August 2015

Curator: Karsten Löckemann

With her photographs, Cindy Sherman (born 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, U.S.) has had a lasting influence on 20th century art. Much like an actress, she portrays herself in different roles before the camera. Although Sherman’s photographs are self-portraits in the traditional sense, they do not reveal much about the artist’s personality. Rather, her primary concern is the deconstruction of gender roles and stereotypes.

Sherman developed early in her childhood an obsession for disguise and masquerade, which she further pursued at the Art Academy in Buffalo. The artist became known with her black and white series, Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980), in which she embodied stereotypical female characters from fictional scenes of the 1950s. Later, she created large-format color photographs, which explored topics such as fashion photography, fairytale characters, horror scenes and society ladies. The Goetz Collection has extensive work groups from nearly all phases of Sherman’s artistic career. With approximately 60 works, the retrospective, which was designed in close collaboration with the artist and is presented in the Gallery Building, provides an excellent overview of her entire work.