Organized by the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, New Jersey, this exhibition brought together a previously little-known selection of early works by contemporary artist Cindy Sherman when she was a Buffalo State College student during the mid-1970s and soon thereafter. Culled from family collections, these photographs and montages provided the foundation for her emergence as one of the most important artists of her generation. Using herself as the subject of her staged photographs, Sherman explores the myriad constructions of female identity and the body in our popular culture.
The exhibition was supported by the Collectors Forum of the Montclair Art Museum. Additional support for the exhibition catalog, a co-publication with Smart Art Press, Santa Monica, CA, was provided by Judith Targan, gifts to the Ann and Mel Schaffer Tribute Fund, and Beth and George Meredith. Montclair Art Museum programs are made possible, in part, by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; Judy and Josh Weston, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundations; and Museum members. The presentation in Buffalo was made possible by Hus Var Fine Art and Land Banking Development.