Self-portrait of the artist as an ageing rich lady with brunette, apparently dyed hair, ostentatious jewellery and a bustier dress. The staircase of an old mansion can be seen in the background. Cindy Sherman, Sammlung Goetz Munich

Sammlung Goetz

Cindy Sherman

January 28 – August 7, 2015

The staging of female role models is the central theme of Cindy Sherman’s work, in which the American artist explores stereotypes of the collective visual memory in a media-driven society.

With her photographs, Cindy Sherman 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 Sammlung Goetz 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, provides an excellent overview of her entire work.

Curated by Karsten Löckemann