Why Cindy Sherman Doesn’t Want Your Pity

Like a superhero masking their “real” identity, Cindy Sherman may be the most photographed person in history whose “real” face (whatever that means) remains a mystery. Since the 1970s Sherman’s played dress up in front of the camera, adding to makeup and costumes her own protean secret ingredient to come up with some of the most enigmatic and unforgettable images commenting on our modern age of image saturation. In the major retrospective exhibition Cindy Sherman, which runs at Museum of Modern Art, New York, through June 11, 2012, we still don’t see the “real” face of Cindy Sherman, but we get to see all her different faces over the decades in one place. Although some would see many of these images as calls for empathy or perhaps even pity, after seeing the show and reading the catalog, you will come away knowing why Cindy Sherman doesn’t want and doesn’t need your pity, and never, ever did. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Why Cindy Sherman Doesn’t Want Your Pity."

[Image: Cindy Sherman. Untitled #474 (detail). 2008. Chromogenic color print, 7′ 6 3/4″ x 60″ (230.5 x 152.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the generosity of an anonymous donor, Michael Lynne, Charles Heilbronn, and the Carol and David Appel Family Fund © 2012 Cindy Sherman.]

[Many thanks to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for providing me with the image above from, press materials related to, and a review copy of the catalog to the exhibition Cindy Sherman, which runs through June 11, 2012.]

Are American Children Starved for Art?

A recent report from Birmingham, England, announced that millions of British children were “culture starved.” Their proof of starvation came in the form of a survey of 2,000 parents from across the U.K. that found that 4 in 10 children from ages 5 through 12 had never been in an art gallery and that 17% had never been to a museum with their parents. Although another report refutes this alarmist report as a marketing ploy to get parents to take the kids to the museum before they “starve,” it did make me—both as someone interested in the arts and as a concerned parent—wonder if my kids are “culture starved” here in the United States and just how culturally nourished the average American child is? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Are American Children Starved for Art?"

[Image source: Shutterstock.com. Copyright: Blaj Gabriel.]