Cindy Morris Sherman 

                Cindy Morris Sherman is an American photographer, film director, and artist who is well-known for her provocative works pertaining to the representation of women in modern society. Many of Sherman’s portraits are distinct and often challenge the stereotypical roles of women that are embedded in an individual’s consciousness. For instance, Sherman uses many “types” of unclassifiable characters by incorporating wigs, makeup, nudity, etc. into her images and portraits (Walker Art Center 2019). By doing so, Sherman conveys influences of feminism, cultural criticisms, and body/identity politics. She uses herself as a “disguised” model in her works to effectively challenge the cultural portrayal of women in society (Walker Art Center 2019). Also, by using this technique, Sherman gives viewers an opportunity to recognize something about themselves while looking at her works. 

                            

                                  Untitled #216 (1989)

                With that being said, many of Sherman’s works are left untitled. Sherman purposely leaves the characters in her images ambiguous for the audience to develop their own narratives that show appreciation to her work (Walker Art Center 2019). Hence, she rarely explicitly reveals any of her intentions through her works. One of Sherman’s famous untitled works is Untitled #216 (shown above), which was taken in 1989. In this particular image, Sherman photographs herself imitating female stereotypes. Sherman poses as the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus while one of her breasts is out of her dress. Sherman exclaims that her goal when developing this character was to “imitate something out of the culture, and also make fun of the culture as I was doing it” (Moma 2019). 

                Like many of her other untitled works as aforementioned, Sherman seeks to challenge the broad expectations and roles of women in modern society. In other words, in the portrait above, it is obvious that Sherman is depicting the typical role of a women as a caregiver in society. However, Sherman pokes fun at this norm by displaying nudity in her portrait in order to ridicule societal expectations for women. 

Collection of Various Works  

Works Cited

(n.d.). Cindy Sherman. Retrieved from https://walkerart.org/collections/artists/cindy-sherman?gclid=Cj0KCQjwwb3rBRDrARIsALR3XeaTTLzZNmHbx1vsaSQYI-HH3FRqIJFsRXArYsLteopJWpkDtMtRxFEaAmrNEALwwcB

Sherman, C. (n.d.). Cindy Sherman. Untitled #216. 1989: MoMA. Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/50744