Cindy Sherman at Astrup Fearnley Museet
Cindy Sherman – Untitled Horrors
4 May–22 September 2013
Astrup Fearnley Museet
Strandpromenaden 2
0252 Oslo, Norway
T +47 22 93 60 60
info [at] fearnleys.no
Cindy Sherman (b. 1954) is one of the leading and most influential artists of our time. She belongs to a generation of postmodern artists who redefined the photograph and its place in an ever more visually oriented culture. Taking female roles in photographic representations as her starting point, Sherman creates recognizable pictures that mirror the human condition in its many nuances. Sherman’s pictures became key works in a time of turbulence for the very concept of art, and continue to challenge concepts of representation, identity and portrait.
Cindy Sherman’s allegorical pictures reflect our own conception of the world and open up for new interpretations of familiar phenomena. She uses herself as a model and equally portrays film stars and pin-up girls, as well as abnormal monsters from fantasy worlds. Sherman’s assertive use of masks, wigs and prosthetics has a disturbing effect, which is further reinforced in pictures where the human presence is gradually reduced in favour of posed dolls or traces of waste and decay.
The exhibition Cindy Sherman – Untitled Horrors has been composed to emphasise the disturbing, grotesque and disquieting sides of Sherman’s pictures. These are aspects that are visible in her exploration of well-established photographic genres such as film stills, fashion photography or classic portraits, as well as in series with titles such as “Fairy Tales,” “Disasters,” “Sex Pictures,” “Civil War” and “Horror & Surrealist.” This exhibition seeks to highlight these key aspects in her artistry and to examine their relevance through a dedicated selection of works from the beginning of her career in the mid-1970s up to the present day.
In conjunction with the exhibition, a richly illustrated catalogue is being published in cooperation with art publishers Hatje Cantz Verlag. The idea behind the catalogue is to explore and examine the more disquieting sides of Sherman’s art by inviting contributions from authors who have touched on similar themes in their own works. Contributors are well-known artists, dramatists and authors including Lars Norén, Miranda July, Sibylle Berg, Sjón, Sara Stridsberg, Karl Ove Knausgård and Kathy Acker.
The exhibition Cindy Sherman – Untitled Horrors is a coproduction between Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo and Kunsthaus Zürich in Switzerland.
Curators: Daniel Birnbaum, Lena Essling, Gunnar B. Kvaran, Hanne Beate Ueland
For more information:
Gard Andreas Frantzsen, Head of Communications
T +47 22 93 60 43 / g.frantzsen [at] fearnleys.no
Astrup Fearnley Museet is grateful for the substantial support it receives from the Thomas Fearnley, Heddy and Nils Astrup Foundation, and Astrup Fearnley AS.
