Cindy Sherman
19 Oct 2013 - 19 Jan 2014
CINDY SHERMAN
Untitled Horrors
19 October 2013 - 19 January 2014
Cindy Sherman is one of the most important artists of our time. Since her breakthrough with Untitled Film Stills in the early 1980s, she has overturned both contemporary art and the attitude to photography. Her images became key works in an era when the concept of art was in constant turmoil, and she has continued to challenge notions of representation, identity and portraiture ever since.
Sherman’s photographic project is intriguing; what at first glance appears straightforward and consistent, soon proves to be contradictory. The artist is almost always present in her images, and yet they could not be called portraits. These works suggest characters, narratives, even though the enactments do not reveal anything in themselves. Like other artists of her generation, Sherman explores popular culture and cultural codes, where the spectator infuses the work with meaning. What elements of the image do we want to believe in, and why?
The catalogue includes texts by the authors and dramatists Kathy Acker, Sibylle Berg, Miranda July, Karl Ove Knausgård, Lars Norén, Sjón and Sara Stridsberg. Rather than adding to the plethora of theoretical commentary, the catalogue lets Cindy Sherman’s imagery inspire some of the most seminal contemporary voices in literature.
Cindy Sherman - Untitled Horrors is curated by Daniel Birnhaum, Lena Essling, Gunnar B. Kvaran, Hanne Beate Ueland. The exhibition is organised by the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in collaboration with Kunsthaus Zürich.
Untitled Horrors
19 October 2013 - 19 January 2014
Cindy Sherman is one of the most important artists of our time. Since her breakthrough with Untitled Film Stills in the early 1980s, she has overturned both contemporary art and the attitude to photography. Her images became key works in an era when the concept of art was in constant turmoil, and she has continued to challenge notions of representation, identity and portraiture ever since.
Sherman’s photographic project is intriguing; what at first glance appears straightforward and consistent, soon proves to be contradictory. The artist is almost always present in her images, and yet they could not be called portraits. These works suggest characters, narratives, even though the enactments do not reveal anything in themselves. Like other artists of her generation, Sherman explores popular culture and cultural codes, where the spectator infuses the work with meaning. What elements of the image do we want to believe in, and why?
The catalogue includes texts by the authors and dramatists Kathy Acker, Sibylle Berg, Miranda July, Karl Ove Knausgård, Lars Norén, Sjón and Sara Stridsberg. Rather than adding to the plethora of theoretical commentary, the catalogue lets Cindy Sherman’s imagery inspire some of the most seminal contemporary voices in literature.
Cindy Sherman - Untitled Horrors is curated by Daniel Birnhaum, Lena Essling, Gunnar B. Kvaran, Hanne Beate Ueland. The exhibition is organised by the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in collaboration with Kunsthaus Zürich.