Cindy Sherman Essay -- Essays Papers

Cindy ShermanTerror and mockery come in concert in the portraits of Cindy Sherman on display at the Crocker Art Museum. Walking into the large, palely lit ballroom, one may begin to feel a lissome sense of trepidation as the viewer looks around to strike clubhouse sets of beady eyes watching ones every move. Sherman produced her archives Portraits during the late eighties and early nineties, nine of which are displayed at the museum. In her portraits she uses lush fabrics, lavish jewelry, and false body parts to decorate herself in these self-portraits. Her portraits have been know to cause discomfort in the viewers who find the general stereotypes, depicted in her portraits, amusing, yet confusing and terrorizing. Shermans lowborn 225 (Blond Woman) triggers those exact emotions.The portrait is a large colored photograph created in 1990. An eighteenth centuryblond, Madonna-like, young lady sits poised with one present on her exposed artificial heart as if she is nursing a baby. She is well dressed in a docile satin dress, small clean beads laced through her braided hair, and a tiara atop her head. Her icy, blue eyes stare off to the left with a harsh, cold expression. With her chest aimed high, spewing fluids, in the same direction as she stares, it is difficult to imagine what is breathing out through her head, however it is clear that it is something of an almost vindictive and unforgiving nature. Possibly, she points her breast toward a man who betrayed her or harass...