Cindy Sherman

The Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted a sweeping retrospective for Cindy Sherman that will travel through mid-2013 and is accompanied by this expansive catalogue. Several monographs on Sherman are available (the selected bibliography here fills eight pages), but this overview is the most comprehensive to date because it clearly documents transformations in her well-known serial self-portraiture. Sherman is celebrated as the quintessential conceptual artist who uses photography. In an essay, exhibition curator Respini describes Sherman as an artist who fully represents today's prevalent "culture of the cultivated self." More adeptly than past writers, Respini firmly situates Sherman among contemporaries like Eleanor Antin, Hannah Wilke, Suzy Lake, and Adrian Piper. Burton's essay, titled "Cindy Sherman: Abstraction and Empathy," analyzes Sherman as a person and a performer. Burton offers new ways to know Sherman through her characters--what Respini rightly refers to as "surface signifiers"--and her signature use of American popular culture iconography. Additionally, the conversation transcript between Sherman and her longtime friend--actor, writer, and director John Waters--is valuable for its forthcoming and refreshing look into creative process and production as it pertains to both artists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. M. R. Vendryes independent scholar

Cindy Sherman was among the first artists to seriously explore gender and identity through self-portraiture. For nearly 40 years, she has raised questions about the validity of the photograph as well as notions of female identity by transforming herself into different characters. This book, edited by Respini (associate curator, photography, Museum of Modern Art; Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West), accompanies Sherman's most recent retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, and showcases works from all of her many series of self-portraits, including her early character and gender experiments of the 1970s, her 1977-1980 "Untitled Film Stills"; her 1981 "Centerfolds"; her 1989-1990 "History Portraits"; her 2000-2002 "Head Shots"; and a new series about society matrons. The collection of these significant works into one volume makes it clear how Cindy Sherman has continued to question the portrayal of women in photography. This edition features exceptional color reproductions, a fascinating interview with Sherman conducted by John Waters, and an insightful essay by editor Respini. VERDICT Highly recommended for all art and photography collections and for those interested in photography and conceptual art.-Shauna Frischkorn, Millersville Univ., PA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.