I am not an art student. I could not tell you the difference between a sculpture made by Jeff Koons and Robert Therrien. When I go to museums I obligatorily stare, somewhat confused, at each piece of art struggling to understand the intended purpose, emotion and reaction I should subsequently feel from being in the presence of the piece.
I began to have a newfound appreciation for museums, and art in general, when I started attending exhibits with my roommate, Lilah Lutes, a successful art student at USC’s Roski School of Art and Design. As a Fine Arts major, Lilah eloquently describes to me the significance of each piece and artist off the top of her head, enabling me to see into the world I have for many years struggled to understand. She explains to me how Jeff Koons’ work playfully shows mundane objects in a new perspective and on a different scale and how Lari Pittman's work revolves around depicting a gay man living in a modern society that is obsessed with consumerism and indulgence.
I feel like an outsider with an insider’s knowledge as she divulges which artists are respected the most. She tells me of the art world’s conflicting opinions regarding artist assistants, who apply strong technical skills to the actual creation of specific art pieces. In other words, prominent artists will act as a director who controls their assistants’ work in order to fulfill their intended vision. The controversy of using artist assistants, she explains to me, is due to these famous artists not giving due credit to the artist assistants who in actuality made the vision come to life. If an artist assistant created a piece by hand, was it really the critically acclaimed artist who created it or not?
Lilah proceeds to tell me that Cindy Sherman, an American photographer, is one of her favorite artists. Almost all of Sherman’s pieces are portraits of herself. She dresses her sets, costumes and appearance to match the person and scene of intention. On view through October 2, 2016, The Broad’s special exhibit of Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life hosts a collection of her work and I can honestly say that this show was one of the most moving exhibits I have ever seen. I highly recommend anyone, art student or not, to see this show.
While Lilah and I viewed the exhibit together, this collection was one of the only ones that I did not need her to elaborate on. Sherman’s photographs, which I find most simply displays a series of unique characters, enables the viewer to react and feel in a multitude of ways. Rather than intending to evoke a specific emotion, her photographs are relatable to every person in different ways. Whether one feels as if the photograph relates to their own life or reminds them of someone, each photograph means something different to everyone. The photographs appear to tell a unique and distinct story about the character in a moment of time: a feeling of hopelessness, sexiness, despair, confusion, happiness, and more.
In addition to how moving each piece is, it is absolutely amazing how each character is actually Sherman in disguise. Between the prosthetic limbs used and makeup applied, the constructed character would make any stranger believe that a model was used, not Sherman herself. Due to this, Sherman does not use artist assistants, as she is the focal point of her work.
A sense of amazement washed over me after leaving Imitation of Life. I am confident that anyone in attendance will be moved by the photographs they view. There is no need to have prior art knowledge to understand and interpret Sherman’s work and while I am more confident in my ability to react to pieces of art, I will still need Lilah in attendance with me for a little while longer.
