Cindy Sherman "Untitled Film Stills" (incomplete) set sells...

[paulr]

I suspect you are mostly talking here about the film stills and the color work just after. Of course, Sherman is still producing work and recently had a big show in San Francisco. At the big show in NYC a year or so ago top critics called praised her work--including her new work--as among the best stuff in all of art.

So she's not quite a historical event yet...

--Darin

Ha! I don't doubt it. No intent to toss her into the historical dustbin. I'm just not familiar with her newer work (or with what people have said about it) so I haven't commented on that.

[Drew Wiley]

Maybe we have different expectations. If some image of hers would ever appeal to me, it would have to be compellingly printed in some manner to reinforce its
message. I'll be the first person to admit that I admire finely done prints. And a generic lab C-print (starting to conspicuously fade well before 40 years) hardly impresses me as something to be coveted for obscene sums of money. Yeah, chromogenic prints are improving; and in this case we're talking about a few black and whites. But guess I'll never dovetail with the current generation's mantra that "just the image counts, not the print". That's about like trying to play Purple Haze with a kazoo; or if I was Fred Picker, of trying to play Beethoven with a gut bucket. The web as the primary means of visual communication these days has only made things worse. A "steak" served via the skill level of Jack in the Box is still just a greasy fat-kid burger in my opinion. No, not every famous painter was good with a brush. But I don't have to admire every famous painter either. But spent money and sheer popularity sometimes only prove public stupidity. Just look at how much money methheads spend. Maybe a bit more disgusting than conspicuous consumption; but either way I call it waste.

[Drew Wiley]

Figgers.... SF ... our own little bit of NYC mentality. There's a reason I rarely cross that bridge any more.

[paulr]

Maybe we have different expectations.

Yeah, on a very fundamental level. You're still talking what does/doesn't appeal to you. I don't care what appeals to you. I'm not talking about what appeals to me, either, if you happen to have missed that.

I'm not a big fan of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, either, for whatever that might be worth, but I don't question that it had a big effect on what came after.

[Drew Wiley]

OK. That's logical, and I agree in principle. But I'd hardly term Cindy Sherman an artistic Pearl Harbor. Maybe Disco music was, for example, a few decades ago; but it has about as big a following as the average earthworm today. Just a fad, all things considered, worthy of a few Brownie points for creativity, but not worth
much in the long haul.