Alighiero Boetti - “Game Plan” at MoMA: Chronicling the entire career of Italian artist Alighero Boetti, Game Plan’s biggest strength is in showing off the amazing technical skill the artist possessed. A leading artist of the Italian Arte Povera movement, Boetti’s true gift lied in embroidery. What look like paintings or prints from far away are actually thousands of tiny stitches, coming together to create strict patterns or zany collages.
Game Plan is on display at MoMA until October 1st, so there’s plenty of time to catch the show. Click here for exhibition details.
Cindy Sherman, Doll Clothes: Along with photographs, the Cindy Sherman retrospective at MoMA also featured some of her early video and collage works. This video, Doll Clothes (1975), was shot on Super 8 film when Sherman was in college.
Cindy Sherman Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art: Currently on display in MoMA’s sixth floor Tisch exhibition gallery are the nearly complete works of Cindy Sherman. An American born photographer, Sherman’s works explore the methods and messages of photography by using herself as both model and photographer. Sherman’s photographs attack and critique an array of social constructs, from exploring the male gaze on the female body in her centerfold series (1981) to commenting on the taboo of aging in her society portraits series (2008).
Cindy Sherman’s photographs function as collective units, each series making a clear and unified statement, both in artistic message and in aesthetics. As her career and technology have both progressed, Sherman has also shifted from film and back-lit projections to digital and computer imaging. For example, for “ILLUMInations” (2010), the larger than life photo murals seen in MoMA’s sixth floor lobby that were first exhibited at the 2011 Venice Biennale, Sherman manipulated her features with computer software rather than with prosthetics and makeup, elongating her nose or narrowing her eyes to create her diverse cast of characters.
As an avid fan of Sherman’s work, what struck me most at the MoMA exhibition was seeing the “Untitled Film Stills” series (1977-80) in its entirety. While I had seen several of them before, either in textbooks, on the internet, or in museums, seeing all 70 photos together was truly captivating. Posing as classic female figures from 1950s and 60s Hollywood film noir, this early work creates a narrative that threatens to suck the viewer in. Creating snapshots of stolen moments, the anonymity of these photos long for a script to tie them together, leaving the story telling up to the viewer.
And if you haven’t already seen it, this is an exhibition you should rush to - the show closes on June 11th! Click here for exhibition details.
