Cindy Sherman’s work is currently on view in a major retrospective at the Walker Art Center, closing February 13^th after having been seen at MoMA New York and MoMA San Francisco; it will open on March 17, 2013 at the Dallas Museum of Art. In addition, a show of early works from 1975-1977 continues at Centre de la photographie in Geneva through January 30. Her work is also included in group shows at the Seattle Art Museum through January 13, 2013; in Regarding Warhol at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which closed on December 31; in Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s at ICA Boston through March 3; and A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance at the Tate Modern through April 1, 2012,

Sherman has been the subject of numerous interviews and articles over the years. Following are a few extracts:

New York Times, interview with Carol Vogel, February 10, 2012
Cindy Sherman was looking for inspiration at the Spence Chapin Thrift Shop on the Upper East Side last month when she eyed a satin wedding dress. An elaborate confection, it had hand-sewn seed pearls forming flowers cascading down the front and dozens of tiny satin-covered buttons in the back from which the train gently hung like a Victorian bustle.

“It’s Arnold Scaasi,” the saleswoman said, as Ms. Sherman made a beeline for the dress. Unzipping the back the clerk showed off a row of labels, one with the year it was made — 1992 — and another with the name of the bride-to-be. “It has never been worn,” she added. As the story goes, when the gown was finished, the bride decided she didn’t like it.

Ms. Sherman appeared skeptical. Is this really what happened, or is the story just the cover for a jilted bride? One begged to know more.

That tantalizing sense of mystery and uneasiness are similar emotions viewers feel when they see one of Ms. Sherman’s elliptical photographs. Over the course of her remarkable 35-year career she has transformed herself into hundreds of different personas: the movie star, the valley girl, the angry housewife, the frustrated socialite, the Renaissance courtesan, the menacing clown, even the Roman god Bacchus. Some closely cropped images; in others she is set against a backdrop that, as Ms. Sherman describes it, “are clues that tell a story.”

“None of the characters are me,” she explained, sipping a soda at a cafe near the shop that afternoon. “They’re everything but me. If it seems too close to me, it’s rejected.” [Read the entire interview.]

Cindy Sherman at Centre de la Photographie, Geneva, for the exhibition, That's Me -- That's Not Me. Photograph by Christian Redtenbacher.

Bombsite, interview with Betsy Sussler, Spring 1985.
Cindy Sherman’s earliest photographic work displayed her posed tauntingly in sets. Mimicry, mostly of ’50s and ’60s film, they anticipated a voyeuristic response. Then the photographs moved into a more intimate relationship between her and the camera: no costumes or props; but Sherman emoting—loneliness, fear, etc. The next series began when she was asked to work with designer clothes. This led to more garish, almost operatic lighting and costumes and it was not only Sherman emoting but Sherman becoming different personalities.

BS Let’s backtrack. When you first started doing artwork, what did you do?

CS Well, it was painting in school, but realistically. I went into photography because it seemed like a fast way to say what you want rather than laboriously making something look real. And here we go again about reality. (laughter) I have never had a very good abstract sensibility. My mind needed organization so when I started photography it was out of a conceptual art vein making projects for myself.

BS What kind of projects?

CS Well, mostly college projects. One of the reasons I started photographing myself was that supposedly in the Spring one of my teachers would take the class out to a place near Buffalo where there were waterfalls and everybody romps around without clothes on and takes pictures of each other. I thought, “Oh, I don’t want to do this. But if we’re going to have to go to the woods I better deal with it early.” Luckily we never had to do that.
Read the entire interview.

The Guardian, feature by Simon Hattenstone, January 14, 2011.
Nobody in the family thought her dressing up was strange. In fact, nobody commented on it. They were simply glad she had found something to occupy herself. Was dressing up a means of escape? "It was partly that, but, to be really psychological about it, it was also partly, 'If you don't like me this way, how about you like me this way?' " Her voice rises with mock joie de vivre. "Or maybe you like this version of me." She felt disliked? "It wasn't that they didn't like me, but I came along so late and they already had a family. Four kids and a family, and I was like this total latecomer...."

Did she think it crazy that a single photo [by her] could fetch $1m? I expect her to say yes, but she's not having any of it. "Not really, because other painters my age with the same kind of success were getting that." So she deserves this? "Totally. I totally deserve this, I thought. People think because it's photography it's not worth as much, and because it's a woman artist, you're still not getting as much – there's still definitely that happening. I'm still really competitive when it comes to, I guess, the male painters and male artists. I still think that's really unfair...."

She admits that the longer she goes on, the harder it is to produce genuinely new work. After working on a series of photographs, Sherman often feels that she never wants to take another photo. "It might be a few months of concentrated work and then I'm just like, forget it – I don't ever want to go in the studio again, I don't want to put on any more make-up again, I'm so sick of those wigs, so sick of it all. I think a lot of artists are like that when they're in the midst of doing something." [Read the entire feature.] [Go to her Atsy page]