Kenya Morris Sherman Essay

Postmodern American artist’s Cindy Sherman and Kara Walker critique and question grand narratives of gender, race and class through their work and art practice. Cindy Sherman, born 1954, is well renowned for her conceptual portraits of female characters and personas that question the representation of women, gender identity and the true (or untrue) nature of photography (Hattenstone 2011). Kara Walker, born 1969, is known for her black silhouettes that dance across gallery walls and most recently her sugar sphinx, A Subtlety, address America’s racist slavery past (Berry 2003). These practitioners differ in their practical application of different mediums, Sherman constructs characters and scenes of stereotypical female personas in her photographs where she operates as the actress, director, wardrobe assistant, set designer and cameraman (Machester 2001). Simone Hatenstone, writer for The Guardian, states “She 's a Hitchcock heroine, a busty Monroe, an abuse victim, a terrified centrefold, a corpse, a Caravaggio, a Botticelli, a mutilated hermaphrodite sex doll, a man in a balaclava, a surgically-enhanced Hamptons type, a cowgirl, a desperate clown, and we 've barely started.” (Hattenstone 2011).Whereas, Walker creates paper silhouettes that are installed into a gallery space, as writer Ian Berry describes,

Terror and mockery come together in the portraits of Cindy Sherman on display at the Crocker Art Museum. Walking into the large, dimly lit ballroom, one may begin to feel a slight sense of trepidation as the viewer looks around to find nine sets of beady eyes watching one’s every move. Sherman produced her History Portraits during the late eighties and early nineties, nine of which are displayed at the museum. In her portraits she uses lush fabrics, lavish jewelry, and false body parts to decorate herself in these self-portraits. Her portraits have been know to cause discomfort in the viewers who find the general stereotypes, depicted in her portraits, amusing, yet confusing and terrorizing.

“Colors and shapes make a more definite statement than words,” stated Georgia O’Keeffe 1976. Georgia O’Keeffe used art as a way to express her own feelings toward the world (“tacomaartmuseum.org”). She attended many colleges, art jobs, and travelled internationally looking for inspiration (“biography.com”). Non-stop searching for inspiration, time and dedication to make art a living, and her years of training and practicing to become the great artist she was, all contribute to Georgia O’Keeffe’s status as a great American.

In her most famous photograph Untitled Film Still #21 she produced an expressionistic self-portrait by portraying as a small-town girl, supposedly lost in the “Big City”. The elements and principles, though lacking in visual colour, she makes it up by having other significant elements such as the lines of the windows and structures with the subject’s eyesight directing observers throughout the picture. There is very little negative space, in addition, the subject is placed near the lower right acting as the focal point creating an asymmetrical balance to expose the uncomfortable sense of being “misplaced”. Furthermore, the camera angle from a downwards view stresses how large the surrounding is and that she is merely lost. In consideration, the background simply highlights the atmosphere that is instilled within the audience helping viewers understand the ambience of the image. It genuinely is a narrow depth of field to clarify the expression of the subject she has chosen to represent, in which is being supported by the scenario of towering skyscrapers and not vice

She was able to create perplexing pieces of work; by adding color shadow and lighting. Her flower paintings had lots of details; some thought that they were erotic.

Her work is based on events happening and who and what was most popular through the 1930’s and the eventful changes happening throughout. Her work through the time of 1930’s New York documentation took the camera on a journey through the changed and events happening at this specific time, her main idea was to get across the point of why she documented New York and to show the dramatic changed that a year can make to such a big city at this time. She documented different areas of New York including the urban scene and the architecture that represented New York in such a big way. She had focused on a lot of types of photography throughout the start of her career and moved on to architecture when documenting New York as she embarked on new found interests in her career. Her main focus was to base her photography on the ‘Changing New York’ and that the time of the 1930’s had such a huge

Cindy Sherman was born in New Jersey in 1954. She was raised by a father who was an engineer, and her mother who taught disabled children, and was the youngest of five. The arts didn’t catch her eye until she began attending Buffalo State College where she started with painting but quickly lost interest. For her, painting had limitations and she didn't like what she was doing so she picked up photography, where she was able to “Use a camera and put {her} time into an idea instead”. During her pursuit of photography in college, she met Robert Longo and others who helped create the “Hallwalls”, photos of buffalo in the 1970s. While in Buffalo she was exposed to many different artists and forms of art that influenced and widened her view of art

This expresses that she implemented her views into her art. The

on realistic painting and has created various portraits that present her as the main subject. Cindy

She repeatedly re-examines the woman’s roles in society and history, she doesn’t believe that her works have negative or explicit messages, which is why she leaves them untitled making them open to interpretation. In the late 1980’s she expanded her range to more gross subjects. I believe her works strongly support woman’s rights, which was, is still is a very important topic. She typically photographed herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs, often times she would shoots alone in her workspace, taking on many roles such as make-up artist, director, talent, and so

After conducting research on all three artist I have decided to look more deeply into Cynthia Sherman, better known as Cindy. My decision on Cindy came very easily to me because I love art through photography. Cindy was born last into a five children house hold to her mother and father. She was born in New Jersey but shortly after birth the family moved to Road Island where Cindy was raised. While at Buffalo State College Cindy began painting but quickly found she was limited. She was unable to come up with her own style and that frustrated her. She then put down the paint brushes and picked up a camera. Cindy found she could quickly capture the art that was around her. Cindy was known for taking snapshots of herself. Many of times she took

Before a film is created, various designers work from a script to capture the exact atmosphere and tone a film needs. There are hundreds, even thousands of artwork created behind a film while only a few will ever meet the screen. Despite that, the artwork serves another purpose; the artwork encourages and directs storyboard artists, animators, colorists, etc. to truly finish a film. One of those designers, those artists, according to John Canemaker, “helped Walt Disney move into a critical phase of his own artistic journey.” That artist was none other than the lovely Mary Blair. Her modernist style and talent for pairing colors instantly became an iconic Disney trait that would inspire later films.

Cindy Sherman’s, Untitled Film Stills from 1977 are a series of 69 total photographs that were comprised in order to appear as though they were actually taken from film reels. Sherman appears in every one of these shots, and finds a way to create a common thread throughout each of them despite the fact that the characters that she is portraying are vastly different from one another. She accomplishes this by using similar clothing, lighting, setting, and compositions as those that would be found in American B-movies from the 1950s and 1960s.

Though all of the images are of Sherman, they are not self-portraits. Sherman posed for these photos as a sort of an actress or heroine. Portraying various clichés about women in post-war America. In #21 you can see that she is dressed up in a feminine business-like dress as if she were going to or from an audition or interview. There is much absent in the photograph, such as the rest of her body or her surrounding environment. The background only reveals that she is in a large city. This ambiguity creates a universal theme, that this could be any woman in any city at any given time.

(Wood). In studying the many parts that make up her style, we can gain a better appreciation for