Friday, August 1, 2014

Charlesworth


In November of last year Cindy Sherman published an obituary in Artforum for her friend and fellow Picture Generation photographer Sarah Charlesworth who had died in June at age 66. The obituary was illustrated with this 1989 photograph of Sarah Charlesworth in Rome, as recorded on film by Cindy Sherman.

This year there are many attempts to further memorialize Sarah Charlesworth, including her posthumous presence in the summer's Whitney Biennial, major gallery shows, and a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.




Sarah Charlesworth first became widely known in the late 70s with the series Modern History. These were actual-size photographs of newspaper front pages with all text blocked out (as white space) and only the masthead and photographs revealed.

Next came Objects of Desire in the early 80s. This is the work  photographic collages isolated in pairs against bright solid colors  most often reproduced in recent tributes.