The Gucci Museo in Florence is having a solo exhibition of the early works of American artist Cindy Sherman. On display are three bodies of Sherman’s work: a short film
, Dollhouse, and two photographic series,
Murder Mystery People and
Bus Riders.
The work comes from her final year at Buffalo University and her first
year after graduation when, along with a group of fellow artists, she
established an artist commune and gallery space called Hallwalls. The body of work on display is evidence of Sherman’s long-standing
fascination with gender and identity, themes that became integral to her
work. The prints from both the
Murder Mystery People series and the
Bus Riders
series were lost or discarded after they were exhibited in the late
seventies. The former, originally 250 photographs, was created as a film
noir-style narrative in which Sherman plays different characters, with
the plot unfolding in a series of frames. In
Bus Riders, Sherman
recreated every day characters that rode the Metro Bus 535 in
Buffalo—the pimply teenager, the grandmother, the working woman—and
photographed them in various ‘bus travel’ posses. The two photographic series show many crucial developments in Sherman’s career. The two photographic series show many crucial developments in Sherman’s career. It was not long after she completed this work that Sherman moved to New
York and began the Untitled Film Stills series that ultimately launched
her career.
