Untitled

1976-2000

Black and white photograph

25.4 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 in.)

The 15 photographs in the Murder Mystery People series are a portrait gallery of potential murderers. But these “Mr and Mrs Everyman” are the same person. Since the 1970s, Cindy Sherman has photographed herself in disguise, playing characters down to their subtlest facial expressions. However, she does not see herself as a model. “I don't think of self-portraits or portraits of myself,” the artist says. “To me, they're other people. It's like having a model while I’m working.”

This key figure in conceptual art paints a picture of American society in her photo series. With the eye of a sociologist and the exuberance of an actress, she achieves true duplication and portrays individuals’ attitudes with unsettling precision.

The Pinault Collection showed Cindy Sherman's Murder Mystery People series for the first time at the Tri Postal in Lille during the 2008 exhibition “Passage du temps” (“Passage of Time”).

Exhibitions