Category: Artist
Nationality: American
Last Year: 27

Cindy Sherman doesn’t shy away from testing the limits of her public. Over the summer, the fifty-seven-year-old showed up, in collaboration with MAC Cosmetics, in a series of grotesque photographic makeovers demonstrating that the uncompromising assault on bodily ideals Sherman began during the 1970s still has bite. Indeed this is just the latest of Sherman’s engagements with a public that extends far beyond the artworld – Lady Gaga’s professed admiration for the artist is reflected in the feminist pop star’s shape-shifting approach to her body and image. Such far-reaching influence might explain the fact that one of Sherman’s early Centerfolds was sold in May for $3.89 million, making it the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction. MoMA’s major retrospective, which will tour to SFMOMA and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, beckons in 2012.