首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Cindy Sherman is a strangely elusive artist. Her face has become famous through the photographs she takes of herself, but her wo
Cindy Sherman is a strangely elusive artist. Her face has become famous through the photographs she takes of herself, but her wo
admin
2012-12-01
52
问题
Cindy Sherman is a strangely elusive artist. Her face has become famous through the photographs she takes of herself, but her work is not autobiographical. Coveted by collectors and extolled by critics, her images explore raw human emotion and common artifice—without revealing who she really is.
A retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York demonstrates that although the 58-year-old American may be her own model, she is not her own muse. Her ninth-floor Manhattan studio also offers clues. Pinned to the walls are magazine cuttings and computer printouts of people in what she calls "preposterous" positions: society ladies in ball gowns making breakfast, actresses who are completely naked except for a designer handbag and costume jewellery. She keeps her props in meticulously organised cupboards—multicoloured wigs, prosthetic noses, false boobs and funny clothes. An orange plastic chest of drawers holds loads of make-up; nearby is the giant track pad she uses to do her post-production digital work. It is here that Ms Sherman mutates into the objects of her fascination.
Why does the photographer appear in most of her work? One reason is shyness. Disguises can be liberating and delegating can be arduous; she tried hiring models once, but found she hated it. Ms Sherman enjoys working alone and doing everything herself. She has also experimented with still lives in which she does not appear. These images appeal to her hard-core fans but they lack the life, literally, of her other work. They are also hard to sell. When collectors buy a Sherman photograph, they want her. Last year one of the 1981 "Centrefold" series (pictured) made $3.9m, then a record for a photograph at auction. Bemused by how much collectors want her in the frame, the artist mimics a male voice: "Is she behind that mask? I only want it if she is in there!"
Unlike many of her male peers who have jumped ship to bigger galleries, Ms Sherman has stayed loyal to her original dealers—Metro Pictures, the New York gallery that presented her first solo show in 1979, and Spruth Magers, which has represented her in Europe since 1984. Neither gallery puts pressure on her; they let her get on with her work at her own pace. As a result, she does not overproduce or aimlessly repeat herself.
Ms Sherman broke into the art world with "Untitled Film Stills", a series of 69 black-and-white images that were taken in the late 1970s. A fictional archive of publicity shots in which she poses as characters in films from the 1950s and 1960s, the work was an immediate hit. Its exploration of media culture took Pop Art beyond celebratory consumerism into a more critical vein. And its satire of female stereotypes was subtly feminist—so subtle, in fact, that a feminist art historian advised the young Ms Sherman to superimpose text on the works to bring out the irony.
Ambiguity is a characteristic of Ms Sherman’s work. One is never quite sure where the artist stands in relation to her characters, and they in turn are often difficult to define. The "Centrefold" series of 12 colour photos in which the artist shot herself from above with fearful or pensive expressions added a layer of anxiety to the uncertainty.
Among Ms Sherman’s most celebrated later works are her "Clowns", which were shot in 2003 and 2004. Eva Respini, who has curated the MoMA show, believes that the clown is a "stand-in" for the artist. In one picture, the name Cindy is embroidered on the jacket of a heavily made-up clown with prosthetic cheeks and nose. It is typical of Ms Sherman’s style that she would be disguised beyond all recognition, looking sad and ugly, in a work that flirts with self-portraiture.
Indeed, looking over all the photographs, it is interesting to see how the artist has aged gracefully in real life but intriguingly badly in her fictions. In 2007 French Vogue commissioned her to do a series of six photographs in which she transformed herself into desperate middle-aged fashion victims dressed in Balenciaga. These pictures led to "The Socialites" in which she depicted herself as older women whose multimillionaire husbands, one suspects, have cast them off for younger versions. Their dignity in the face of faded glamour reveals both the empathy and brutality of the artist’s eye.
Ms Sherman is a kind of actor-director of still pictures who delves into the representation of women—and occasionally men—in Western society. Back in the 1970s, when she first embarked on this artistic path, few would have predicted that she could make so many compelling bodies of work through depicting herself. But much like a character actor who takes pleasure in nailing a bit part, Ms Sherman takes a detailed interest in others while mastering the art of making it up. (From The Economist; 805 words)
What can be learned about "Untitled Film Stills" according to the passage?
选项
A、It includes photos of celebrities in the 1950s and 1960s.
B、It is an example of Pop art of 1970s.
C、It is subtly sarcastic of feminism.
D、It brought Ms Sherman immediate success in the art world.
答案
D
解析
细节题。文章第五段第二句话“the work was an immediate hit”可以判断D选项为正确答案。在这组照片中,她假装成五六十年代电影中的角色,故A不正确。同时这组照片是对女性的成见,表现出细微的女权主义,而不是讽刺女权主义,故C不正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/uXaO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Inaccordancewiththemissionithassetitselftofurtherthedevelopmentofsport,theInternationalOlympicCommitteestrive
ThepreindustrialperiodofthedevelopmentofcitiesintheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeestablishmentofthecoloniesinthe
ThetradeandinvestmentrelationshipbetweentheEuropeanUnionandtheUnitedStatesisthemostimportantintheworld.Despi
ThetradeandinvestmentrelationshipbetweentheEuropeanUnionandtheUnitedStatesisthemostimportantintheworld.Despi
Therearetwosortsofpeopleintheworld,whowithequaldegreesofhealth,andwealth,andtheothercomfortsoflife,become
A、Butchersandsupermarketswereaffected.B、Theex-presidentwasoverthrown.C、Roadstothecapitalwereblocked.D、Exporttaxe
Youshouldnotfearspidersthankstotheirpoison.Ofallthespidersin【M1】______NorthAmerica,onlyonekindisreallyda
Withitscommoninterestinlawbreakingbutitsimmenserangeofsubjectmatterandwidely-varyingmethodsoftreatment,thecri
Theseniorpartner,OliverLambert,studiedtheresumeforthehundredthtimeandagainfoundnothinghedislikedaboutMitchell
TheheadoftheU.S.CentralBanksaysthekeydriveroftheU.S.economyis
随机试题
从树的根结点到树中的其余结点之间的路径______惟一的。
风疹病毒易感者主要是
A.痉挛性脑瘫B.手足徐动型脑瘫C.强直型脑瘫D.共济失调型脑瘫E.肌张力低下型脑瘫肌张力增高,被动运动时有折刀样改变见于
运用现代医学技术,不通过两性结合,而进行高等动物(包括人)生殖的技术是()
营业税的扣缴义务人是指根据税法的规定,负有扣缴纳税人应纳税款义务的单位和个人,演出经纪人为个人的,其办理演出业务的应纳税款以()为扣缴义务人。
近年来,随着移动互联网的发展和高性能低功耗处理芯片的推出,部分穿戴式设备已经从概念走向商用。关于穿戴式设备的报道不断传出。谷歌眼镜是当前穿戴式设备最受关注的例子。资料显示,谷歌眼镜配有陀螺仪、加速器等常见感应器,可以追踪用户脸和头的朝向和角度,通过连接安卓
户调式是西晋基本的经济和财政制度,它的内容中不包括()。
Oneofthemanyodditiesofmigrationpolicyisthatimmigrantscomingintoworkpermanentlyareusuallyaminorityofthosewh
设a>0,讨论方程aex=x2根的个数。
A、Theyprotectstudents’rights.B、Theypromoteglobalization.C、Theyupholdthepresidents’authority.D、Theyencourageacademi
最新回复
(
0
)