The essential Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman has had a profound influence on the artists of her generation. Alluring and repellent, her hilarious art treats issues of femininity, the role of women in society, sexuality, and the act of making photographs. In Sherman's portrayals of B-grade '50s and '60s Hollywood heroines, fashion models, and subjects from Old Masters paintings, she serves as subject and object of her own work. Sherman's newer work catapults artificial body parts, decapitated dolls, and grisly scenes of violence to the fore. Do you know why: We are so engaged, amused, and horrified by Cindy Sherman's images? Sherman's photographs of herself are not really self-portraits? Sherman's photographs are Rorschachs for the end of the 20th century?