Work Title: Untitled (Woman in Sun Dress)
Artist: Cindy Sherman
Media: Photography- Lamda C- print
Dimensions: 30 x 20 inches paper size
Year: 2003
Image Link: Untitled (Woman in a Sun Dress)
Exhibition History: http://www.photography-now.com/artists/K08229.html
Artist Statement:
"The work is what it is and hopefully it’s seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work, but I’m not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff."
Artist: Cindy Sherman
Media: Photography- Lamda C- print
Dimensions: 30 x 20 inches paper size
Year: 2003
Image Link: Untitled (Woman in a Sun Dress)
Exhibition History: http://www.photography-now.com/artists/K08229.html
Artist Statement:
"The work is what it is and hopefully it’s seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work, but I’m not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff."
Curator Comments:
Sherman is an American photographer, film director, and model for her artwork. Although Sherman does not consider her work feminist, many of her photo-series, like Woman in a Sun Dress, call attention to the stereotyping of women in films, television, and magazines (Cindy Sherman). Photographed in Woman in a Sun Dress is Sherman, with a terrible orange, fake tan with blatant bathing suit tan lines. Wrapped around her is a tight dress that shows off her barely-there body covered with gaudy bracelets and necklaces. Her hair is long, blonde, and straightened. Her lips, plump and outlined with liner, appear to be overly injected with collagen, and her wide eyes and tight skin seem to have been tweaked with Botox. Overall, she looks like a stereotypical “Housewife of Orange County”.
Within Sherman’s work, she “asks us to think about the typecast roles women play as shaped by popular media and the expectations of society”—the pinup, the fashion plate, the battered women, and like this painting, the housewife (MMoCA Collects). She would like us to see these stereotypes as created by “a culture whose values have been traditionally those of men in power” and question these values (MMoCA Collects). The purpose of Women in a Sun Dress is to not be flattering; it is supposed to look ugly and over done, to show what the media deems as “beautiful”: a tan, young, blonde, skinny woman. The only problem with these characteristics is that people are convinced that they need to achieve them, like the stereotypical OC Housewife. Because of the media, she believes she needs to stay young forever, but the changes that she makes to become that image only make her look scary and fake.
Sherman is an American photographer, film director, and model for her artwork. Although Sherman does not consider her work feminist, many of her photo-series, like Woman in a Sun Dress, call attention to the stereotyping of women in films, television, and magazines (Cindy Sherman). Photographed in Woman in a Sun Dress is Sherman, with a terrible orange, fake tan with blatant bathing suit tan lines. Wrapped around her is a tight dress that shows off her barely-there body covered with gaudy bracelets and necklaces. Her hair is long, blonde, and straightened. Her lips, plump and outlined with liner, appear to be overly injected with collagen, and her wide eyes and tight skin seem to have been tweaked with Botox. Overall, she looks like a stereotypical “Housewife of Orange County”.
Within Sherman’s work, she “asks us to think about the typecast roles women play as shaped by popular media and the expectations of society”—the pinup, the fashion plate, the battered women, and like this painting, the housewife (MMoCA Collects). She would like us to see these stereotypes as created by “a culture whose values have been traditionally those of men in power” and question these values (MMoCA Collects). The purpose of Women in a Sun Dress is to not be flattering; it is supposed to look ugly and over done, to show what the media deems as “beautiful”: a tan, young, blonde, skinny woman. The only problem with these characteristics is that people are convinced that they need to achieve them, like the stereotypical OC Housewife. Because of the media, she believes she needs to stay young forever, but the changes that she makes to become that image only make her look scary and fake.
Bibliography:
"Biography." Cindy Sherman. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. <http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml>.
"Biography." PBS. Web. 29 Apr. 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/cindy-sherman/>.
"Cindy Sherman." The Art History Archive. Lilith Gallery. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. <http://www.lilithgallery.com/arthistory
/photography/Cindy-Sherman.html>.
"MMoCA Collects." Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. <http://www.mmoca.org/mmocacollects
/artwork_page.php?id=39>.
Sherman, Cindy. Untitled (Woman in Sun Dress). 2003. Photograph. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. <http://www.wcma.org/press
/07/Big_Images/07Tuchman/Cindy_Sherman.jpg>.
"Biography." Cindy Sherman. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. <http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml>.
"Biography." PBS. Web. 29 Apr. 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/cindy-sherman/>.
"Cindy Sherman." The Art History Archive. Lilith Gallery. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. <http://www.lilithgallery.com/arthistory
/photography/Cindy-Sherman.html>.
"MMoCA Collects." Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Web. 25 Apr. 2010. <http://www.mmoca.org/mmocacollects
/artwork_page.php?id=39>.
Sherman, Cindy. Untitled (Woman in Sun Dress). 2003. Photograph. Web. 28 Apr. 2010. <http://www.wcma.org/press
/07/Big_Images/07Tuchman/Cindy_Sherman.jpg>.
