Cindy Sherman @ MoMA

I keep hearing about this Cindy Sherman show that's on at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan - most recently via a targeted, exhibition-specific ad this morning on NPR - and it makes me want to go see it before it ends on June 11.

MoMA - Dept. of Film and Video (Photo: Wikipedia Loves Art photo pool on Flickr)

Given that Mad Men, a show which I am addicted to (and not just because Jon Hamm a.k.a "Don Draper" is one of the best-looking actors working in America today!), has renewed widespread interest in mid-20th-century American fashion trends, I am particularly keen on seeing Sherman's series of photographic self-portraits "that feature the artist in stereotypical female roles inspired by 1950s and 1960s Hollywood, film noir, and European art-house films." (MoMA)

Just as intriguing a prospect as taking in these self-styled, slick images prodced by Sherman is checking out which movies she has chosen to complement them: "In conjunction with the exhibition, Sherman has selected films from MoMA’s collection, which will be screened in MoMA’s theaters during the course of the exhibition." (MoMA)

Cindy Sherman has, as her official online biography states, literally "turned the camera on herself," chronicling her own life and times in pictures that provide thought-provoking social commentary in the process.

A one-woman show at MoMA in the heart of Manhattan is a great homage to a great artist.

(It also begs the question how many "one-woman" - versus "one-man" - shows there have been at major museums throughout human history - any statistic of this nature would more likely than not be rather sobering for female artists. Not that artists and art museums should be "bean counters" and promote people lacking talent just for the sake of coming across as "PC" - I'm just sayin' it would be an int. fact to consider in the big scheme of things!)

As this article by British daily The Guardian points out, Sherman "just can't seem to keep herself out of her art."

This makes her kind of akin to a hyper-creative "visual blogger," before the expression "to blog" ever existed. ("I blog, therefore I am?")

Even if she claims (as the Guardian piece suggests) that her art is not autobiographical, it is highly personal as she is at its very essence at every turn. Sure, her various incarnations over the years (Sherman was born in 1954) have provided a running social commentary on the state, or various stages of, "womankind." But by injecting herself into everything she does she has placed herself squarely at the center of her entire creative ouevre. This approach may no longer seem "new" today, but looking back on the 170 photographs on show in this sweeping MoMA retrospective of her work surely provides a kind of narrative built up over time that is unique in this world - has anyone else ever done this?