But why, then, does Sherman continue to accept commissions? Perhaps, like many others who view the images, she actually thinks they are the joke. The ageing women portrayed have clearly lost the allure of youth and seem to be forlornly attempting to offset this with unconvincing cosmetic procedures and a showy display of wealth.
Particularly for a younger audience, yet to be marked by their first wrinkle, they are easy to mock. But older viewers may detect a sense of pathos. They are, after all, victims of a youth-obsessed culture we have all helped to create. They appear to be publicity shots for actresses.
But these are women who would have had their heyday in the silent era and are now likely to be rendered obsolete by new technology and younger models, a reading which adds a certain level of poignancy to their determinedly proud posturing.
If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Art Photography. For a woman whose career has been built on self-portraits, Cindy Sherman is barely recognizable.
You have to remind yourself that you are in the presence of one of the most exciting and fascinating artists working today. You may change your billing preferences at any time in the Customer Center or call Customer Service. You will be notified in advance of any changes in rate or terms. You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. A series of three hand-blended oils, developed in collaboration with perfumer Haley Alexander van Oosten, were four years in the making.
A fellow author retraces how it was authenticated. Six luminaries to weigh in on a single topic. By Phoebe Hoban. Call it the Cindy Sherman effect. Now we all take it for granted that a photograph can be Photoshopped. We live in the era of YouTube fame and reality-TV shows and makeovers, where you can be anything you want to be any minute of the day, and artists are responding to that. Cindy was one of the first to explore the idea of the malleability or fluidity of identity.
Polymorphously perverse has become pervasive. The implicit has become increasingly explicit. Artistic personae can not only be instantly created but also instantly animated and disseminated. Art via avatar. In the hilarious video I Am Your Grandma , Mayer plays both the future grandmother of a furious infant and the bawling baby. But this is grandma as gremlin. I would have hugged you so.
But you are in the future, you get loved by video. Her impersonation of Venus de Milo takes a violent turn when she amputates her own arms. She was the trendsetter in terms of distorted characters within self- portraiture. Originally painters painted self-portraits, and then she kind of blew it open with photographic portraiture, and now there are all these avenues younger artists are taking, which would not have been so easy without her work.
She fundamentally nailed it in terms of understanding the way images are constructed. Portraiture was never considered something conceptual in quite the way that she took it on. By deconstructing and reinventing portraiture, which in itself was something of a dead genre when she arrived on the scene, Sherman influenced not only photographers but also painters and performance and video artists.
And by limiting her subject matter strictly to herself, while at the same time excavating countless permutations, she inspired a generation of younger artists to explore their own identities across a range of mediums.
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