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拍品專文
"Once I’m set up, the camera starts clicking, then I just start to move and watch how I move in the mirror. It’s not like I’m method acting or anything. I don’t feel that I am that person. I may be thinking about a certain story or situation, but I don’t become her. There’s this distance. The image in the mirror becomes her – the image the camera gets on the film. And the one thing I’ve always known is that the camera lies.” (C. Sherman, quoted in E. Respini, “Will the Real Cindy Sherman Please Stand Up?”, Cindy Sherman, exh. cat, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2012, p. 23)
Cindy Sherman’s History Portraits are among the most striking and provocative images of her career. Following on from her series of Film Stills, she mines the considerable depths of art history to continue her investigation into cultural tropes surrounding representation.
Untitled #205 features what appears to be a pregnant woman swathed in diaphanous fabric, but rather trying to hide the pretense, Sherman makes sure the viewer is perfectly aware of the artifice. “Herein lies the brilliance of the history portraits: even where her pictures offer a gleam of art historical recognition, Sherman has inserted her own interpretation of these ossified paintings, turning them into contemporary artifacts of a bygone era” (E. Respini, “Will the Real Cindy Sherman Please Stand Up?” Exh. Cat., New York Museum of Modern Art, Cindy Sherman, 2012, pp. 43-44.).
In another example from the series, Untitled #206, Sherman appears as a seated Medici-like male figure in an ornate, dimly lit room. In her history portraits, male characters are particularly rare, making this a particularly unique and fascinating work. The figure gazes directly at the viewer, and the beautifully decorated interior of the subject’s home, as well as his Prince Valiant style hair and Renaissance robes, suggest wealth and power. He holds a fruit in his left hand, and a coin satchel is presented on the table next to him, both classic signifiers of wealth in the tradition of classical portraiture.
In sharp contrast to her historical portraits, Sherman’s Untitled (Red Robe) #97 from 1982 shows a pensive nude woman in a red robe. Using no more than this simple visual reference, Sherman has created a thought provoking character and suggested an entire narrative through a single item. By taking perceived notions of identity and turning them on their head, Sherman has become a pioneer in testing the cultural and conceptual boundaries of her chosen medium. However hard we try, we can never tell exactly what is happening behind the mask that Sherman creates.
Cindy Sherman’s History Portraits are among the most striking and provocative images of her career. Following on from her series of Film Stills, she mines the considerable depths of art history to continue her investigation into cultural tropes surrounding representation.
Untitled #205 features what appears to be a pregnant woman swathed in diaphanous fabric, but rather trying to hide the pretense, Sherman makes sure the viewer is perfectly aware of the artifice. “Herein lies the brilliance of the history portraits: even where her pictures offer a gleam of art historical recognition, Sherman has inserted her own interpretation of these ossified paintings, turning them into contemporary artifacts of a bygone era” (E. Respini, “Will the Real Cindy Sherman Please Stand Up?” Exh. Cat., New York Museum of Modern Art, Cindy Sherman, 2012, pp. 43-44.).
In another example from the series, Untitled #206, Sherman appears as a seated Medici-like male figure in an ornate, dimly lit room. In her history portraits, male characters are particularly rare, making this a particularly unique and fascinating work. The figure gazes directly at the viewer, and the beautifully decorated interior of the subject’s home, as well as his Prince Valiant style hair and Renaissance robes, suggest wealth and power. He holds a fruit in his left hand, and a coin satchel is presented on the table next to him, both classic signifiers of wealth in the tradition of classical portraiture.
In sharp contrast to her historical portraits, Sherman’s Untitled (Red Robe) #97 from 1982 shows a pensive nude woman in a red robe. Using no more than this simple visual reference, Sherman has created a thought provoking character and suggested an entire narrative through a single item. By taking perceived notions of identity and turning them on their head, Sherman has become a pioneer in testing the cultural and conceptual boundaries of her chosen medium. However hard we try, we can never tell exactly what is happening behind the mask that Sherman creates.