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Cindy Sherman / United States b.1954 / ANCIENNE MANUFACTURE ROYALE (LIMOGES) / France est. 1736 / Madame de Pompadour née Poisson (1721-1764) 1989 / Hard-paste porcelain modelled after a Sèvres original, with Rose Pompadour ground colour, silver details and transferred photograph. Interior of tureen transfer printed / Tureen: 17 x 38 x 30cm; lid: 9 x 28.5 x 21cm; stand: 7 x 55.5 x 35cm; 31 x 55.5 x 35cm (complete) / Purchased 1990 / © Cindy Sherman
Cindy ShermanMadame de Pompadour née Poisson (1721–1764) 1989
On Display: Regional Touring Exhibition
In the 1970s, North American photographer Cindy Sherman created a series of fabricated ‘film stills’ in which she adopted the trappings of femininity to highlight their role in the construction of ‘persona’. Made against the backdrop of second-wave feminism and other socially progressive theories, the artworks foregrounded the stereotypical nature of traditional portraiture, and eroded the idea of a unique, cohesive identity.
Since then, Sherman has continued to interrogate and parody the genre, producing increasingly complex staged photographs as well as this tureen, made as part of a table service manufactured to her specifications by the historic Limoges factory in France. The dish sees Sherman in the central cartouche assuming the part of the legendary mistress of Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour, known for her elaborate dress and hairstyles. Replacing the hand-painted image of the doyenne with a screen print of herself in more modest attire, Sherman satirises the conferral of prestige based on appearance.
Cindy Sherman is renowned as a chameleon; her own image is at the centre of an astonishing array of character studies, developed over decades. Through her articulate and incisive practice, Sherman has positioned photography as an important contemporary art form by expanding on society’s fascination with appearance, narcissism, aspirational culture, emotional fragility and the cult of celebrity.
She is widely recognised as the most significant artist to have emerged from the ‘Pictures generation’ in New York in the late 1970s, and she continues to influence a new generation of artists. By focusing on Sherman’s work of the past 16 years, this exhibition offers an insight into the artist’s transition to digital photography.