Untitled #211 [History Portraits/Old Masters]

With the image group History Portraits/Old Masters (1988–1990), Sherman began to explore the representation of power and social status in the painting of the Old Masters. In the classically composed portrait formats of this series, which refer to different eras of art history and sometimes even specific works, Sherman especially identifies the artificiality of depiction and self-depiction. Her photographs, ‘faked’ as painting, ironize the deceptive maneuvers of the people and bodies in the portraits. In particular, Sherman’s obvious use of artificial body parts builds directly on approaches to staging she developed in previous series. Here, it very clearly runs counter to the principle of any idealized representation.