Cindy Sherman Research Paper

Laurie Anderson and Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman and Laurie Anderson demonstrate art in the modern era by using two very unique forms of art while still maintaining their roles as two of the most influential artists of today. Cindy Sherman’s unique and innovative style of photographing herself in a majority of her photographs, which is her own form or style of photography. Her ability to transform herself and express various types of emotion in any of her photographs is what makes her matchless. Laurie Anderson is an innovative performance artist that has combined music and video art to create masterful pieces that encompass every emotion that is put into one piece to create an emotional boom effect. One might question if it’s sad or happy,
They were both born around the same time Laurie Anderson being the oldest of the two at the age of 65 and Cindy Sherman being 58. Both Anderson and Sherman went to college knowing that they were interested in the art field. Laurie Anderson graduated Barnard College as one of the top students with a degree in Art History, Cindy Sherman however went into college thinking she was going to be a painter, but she then realized painting had a lacked of expression that photography had so then she focused all of her time and effort into photography from then on out. Cindy Sherman would photograph herself all dressed up also known as “dolling up” by her friends. Cindy Sherman would dress as any character she wanted, then she would go out to parties still in character, “I’d be in my studio making up a character and then go out in character to join the party I’d put in all this energy into the makeup and id think why waste it.”1 With these photographs Cindy Sherman has created “some of the most expensive photographs ever sold”2 Laurie Anderson is also as successful because she is not just known for her performance art, she is known for her music as well, such as her most popular song called O Superman, which reached number two on the billboard top 100 in the United
This record-breaking, beautiful photograph shows so much emotion in a very simplistic way. “The work exudes shock and confrontation through its scale and the boldness of Sherman's tight compositional framing, yet the figure at the work's center is also endearing and curiously vulnerable. Sherman places these conflicts at her work's very heart, as she questions, not only the medium of photography, but also our wider assumptions about gender and truth in the modern world”6. Cindy Sherman shows a woman lying on the ground grasping a piece of paper in her hands, the piece of paper has been claimed to be a newspaper classified the reason why she is lying on the ground though is yet to be known. This piece is similar to Laurie Anderson’s O Superman because of all the emotions hidden in the piece. In Laurie Anderson’s piece she keeps people guessing on what is going to happen next, people question their emotions at times, whether to be scared or excited for what’s happening next. “To this end, her recent work assumes the format of a strange metaphysical rock concert, utilizing and taming in the process a vast array of complex electronic equipment. Although her performances, unlike the cool, formalistic works of the recent past, are humorous and entertaining, there is a chilling undercurrent of impending doom to her performance-concerts.”7 Her art is somewhat creepy and yet very artistic