Modern American artist Cindy Sherman: biography, creativity

The modern world of art is full of diversity and creativity. The goals pursued by the artists who create their works are completely different. One thing is clear: everyone strives to bring something new. Someone with the help of art wants to show their feelings, someone wants to give the world a drop of good. Cindy Sherman became one of those artists who break stereotypes. She ridicules modern foundations and rules, and for that her love.

Birth

Cindy Sherman was born in 1954. March 19 baby was born in Glen Ridge in the state of New Jersey (a suburb of New York). Immediately after her birth, the family moved to Huntington, Long Island. There are five children in her family. Parents had nothing to do with art. Father is an engineer, and his mother is a teacher.

Childhood

Biography Cindy Sherman begins in a large family. The girl in her became the fifth and last child, although at that time two children were already independent and preferred to live separately. The father often showed his strong temper, and then the mother had to protect them. One of Cindy's older brothers Sherman Frank at the age of 27 years committed suicide because of failures in his personal life. The guy could not find his place in the sun, and this led to a deep depression.

Already from a small age, the girl loved to change her images. She dressed up in different clothes, which remained from her grandmother, changed hair and painted. She was not interested in the images of princesses and queens, like other contemporaries, she dressed up in old ladies, witches and monsters. In addition, Cindy was able to draw, which later left a mark on her life.

School life

The Cindy Sherman family did not have sufficient funds to educate their children, so in 1972 the girl decided to go to the University College in Buffalo. There she started painting, but after a while realized that she was not interested in copying other people's work, she wanted to do something special, special. Cindy realized that the camera would be able to copy the image much better than her, so she gradually switched to photography. This gave her much more scope for inspiration and new ideas. In 1977, she graduated from the university and received a diploma.

Creation

Immediately after graduation, the girl begins to translate her ideas into reality and begins work on a new project. It was called Untitled Film Stills, which means "Shots from movies without a name". A series of her black and white photographs came out in 1980 and consisted of 69 photographs. Cindy herself acted as a model, dresser, make-up artist and photographer in one person. In 1980, the girl stopped work on this project, since at that time it seemed to her that the footage had exhausted itself.

She began to be invited to various exhibitions, but Sherman was disappointed that it practically did not bring any income. The rest of the artists received exactly the same feedback in the press as she did, but their earnings were much greater. In the same year, Cindy decides to work in color and with a larger format. Her second project caused an ambiguous reaction. In the pictures, vomit masses and other "nasty" things were imprinted, but people bought her works.

In 1990, a new project of the artist called History Portraits / Old Masters ("Historical Portraits / Old Masters"). During the creation of the series of photographs, the artist was in Rome, but she did not go either to the museums or to the church in principle. Her work, she created, solely relying on reproductions of books. And it finally brought her income. Sherman herself believes that this happened, because viewers no longer wanted to look at "modern art", they wanted something more spiritual and warm.

The next her work was called Sex Pictures ("Sexy Pictures"). To create it, the artist specially ordered medical male and female mannequins. Since the genitals were not too different beauty, the girl had to fix everything. In this she was helped by the lessons of painting. She pasted her pubic hair and painted mannequins in different colors. Sherman, from childhood, was drawn to disgusting things, and in this work her main task was to find out why she was experiencing such an attraction.

This issue, she continues to disclose in her new work Civil War ("Civil War"). The whole project is permeated with cruelty, violence and pieces of human rotting meat. This gave the artist to understand that, to some extent, it attracts the theme of death.

In the 1990s, she tries herself in the role of director. Her film called Office Killer ("Killer in the office") did not bring popularity, but it can not be called bad, because this work includes several genres at once: comedy, horror and thriller. All in the spirit of Cindy Sherman.

A little later the woman decides to return to the roots and produces a series of photos of aging actresses. The new project is sent to her "Cadres from films without a title", where young and pretty girls have already lost their life force, they wither, but still retain some charm and intrigue. Then the artist tries herself as a clown. The pictures turned out to be sad and aggressive rather than funny. In 2000, the artist released a new project, which showed the entire bombast of Hollywood. Too much makeup and silicone.

The artist herself admits that she was always very modest, that's why sometimes she wanted to be a different person. For all her costumes, wigs and body parts, the woman watches very carefully. They neatly spread out over several cabinets.

Features of creativity

The first photo of Cindy Sherman is more like a shot from life, accidentally filmed on camera. She never chooses a certain person whom she would like to show in her works, she chooses a certain type that interested her. All the characters she portrayed are fictitious. The artist removes herself and only in rare cases asks someone to help her. She does not burden herself with searching for models for her projects. Cindy tried to shoot friends and relatives, and even once hired an assistant, but she could not work with any of them, because she did not know what she really wanted to see in her photos. The girl simply could not explain what she needed. For them, it was all fun, but for Cindy it was work.

Most often it depicts women of different backgrounds: a business business lady, a prostitute, a housewife, a simpleton, a library worker or a passionate independent woman. Her work does not leave anyone indifferent. They are full of drama, scandalous and even provocative mood, black humor. Cindy shows modern people hiding their feelings deep inside, outside the same - false smiles and grimaces.

Feminism in the works

In her works, photographer Cindy Sherman showed female images: a girl who travels by hitchhiking, a sobbing drunken woman, a working woman in the office, a child in the city, an abandoned mistress. Of course, critics saw in the photos feminist motives. Her projects show a fake. Thus, the woman tried to show the entire pompousness of women's roles and sometimes unnatural behavior in the society of the fairer sex. Unlike other photographers, Cindy always claimed that the camera was lying. Her creative vision of the world and the environment is similar to a sermon in contemporary art. So she feels what is happening around her.

After she received a new order from the magazine Artforum, her feminist images stirred everyone around. They looked like a parody of pictures from pornographic magazines, but the heroines did not look exciting at all, on the contrary, they seemed sad and tired. Thus, the modern American artist Cindy Sherman wanted to show how the girls feel under the relentless male gaze. How hard it is to live in a society where the main role still belongs to men.

Computer Processing

When creating his work Sherman has to resort to computer processing. Since most often it is filmed in the studio, then using computer programs, it paints the background. To this method, the artist resorts to giving the image a greater falsity and ostentatiousness.

Exhibitions

Immediately after the release of her first serious work - "Frames from films without a name" - the girl comes to success. Now the crowd repeats one name: Cindy Sherman is an artist. She took part in several international exhibitions, one of which was the Venice Biennale. This exhibition is very honorable for artists. After 5 years of her work were exhibited in the famous museum of American art "Whitney".

In 2012, the New York Museum of Modern Art hosted a major exhibition of the artist's works, which was dedicated to the 35th anniversary of her career.

Unlike many other artists, Cindy does not betray old friends, and her photo is still represented by the New York Metro Pictures, which once exhibited her first works within her walls.

Personal life

In 1984 Cindy Sherman married the director from France Michel Oder. From this marriage, the artist has no children, although she raised her daughter Michel. Then they divorced. From 2007 to 2011, Cindy had a relationship with the talented artist David Byrne.

Career

In 1980, the work of the young artist acquired world popularity, and in 1995 the New York Museum of Modern Art acquired the entire series of "Frames from films without a title" for $ 1,000,000, after some time one of her photos was sold for $ 190,000. In 1997, the famous singer Madonna sponsored her exhibition "Shots from films without a name."

Of course, we can say that the icon, which sets the style in art, was Cindy Sherman. The rating of her work is very high. In the list of "the most influential people in the art world" she is on the 7th place. In her career she achieved great heights. Not every artist can boast that his work - both old and new - in great demand. At the moment, Cindy Sherman is the most famous and influential artist in the world. None of her photos are sold for less than $ 50,000. Nevertheless, admirers of Cindy Sherman's creativity often want to get a complete set of her works.

Auction

The annual income of Cindy Sherman from the sale of her work at auctions in the period from 2000 to 2006 ranges from $ 1.5 million to $ 2.8. In 2007, it increased to $ 8.9 million. Photo Sherman "Untitled # 96" (1981) was auctioned for $ 3,890,500.

This work was in the list of the most expensive photos. It depicts a nice girl lying on the floor, who is holding a scrap of newspaper in her hand with the announcement of acquaintances. Sherman laid a deep meaning in her work. An innocent girl, so lonely and so seductive, and this piece of paper with the announcement of acquaintance, say that the girlhood that has not yet fully matured dreams to break free and go towards adventure.