About this artwork
Cindy Sherman’s staged photographs explore the pervasive effects of mass-media images on individual identities. Since the late 1970s, the artist has served as both photographer and model for a large cast of fictional personalities created primarily through costume, hair, makeup, and lighting. In 1981 she began a series of large color photographs that mimic the horizontal format of a magazine centerfold. Critiques of these glossy spreads, Sherman’s representations are fraught with anxiety, vulnerability, and longing. In Untitled #88, she depicted herself as a young, disheveled blonde girl; her fragility and isolation are underscored by her huddled body language and pensive stare. An imposing darkness surrounds her, except for the warm glow from what is most likely a fire, the only source of light in the picture. While the girl’s specific situation remains ambiguous, the photograph illustrates that, for Sherman, gender roles are performative.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Artist
- Cindy Sherman
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Title
- Untitled #88
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Place
- United States (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1981
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Medium
- Chromogenic print; artist's proof number one of one
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Dimensions
- 61 × 121.9 cm (24 × 48 in.)
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Credit Line
- Gerald S. Elliott Fund in memory of Ann Elliott
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Reference Number
- 1988.118
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Copyright
- © Cindy Sherman. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.
Extended information about this artwork
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