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Article: Seductive cipher: the first U.S. museum show for Katharina Sieverding centered on multiple self-portraits whose large scale and exaggerated glamour offer a wry critique of consumerist image manufacture.
- Article from:
- Art in America
- Article date:
- June 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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One of the most memorable scenes in Billy Wilder's 1950 film Sunset Boulevard shows the failed screenwriter Joe Gillis, played by William Holden, scanning a living room filled with countless portraits of the house's owner, Norma Desmond, a fading silent-movie star played by Gloria Swanson. "She was just plain craw when it came to that one subject, her celluloid self," he says in a voiceover.
One could have had a similar reaction to "Close Up," the first U.S. museum survey of works by Katharina Sieverding, held at New York's P.S.1 last winter, which featured room after room of floor-to-ceiling photo self-portraits by the artist, ranging from 8-by-10-inch shots ...