"Art and Identity: The Museum of Modern Art"

Cindy Sherman, Martin Kippenberger, and Marlene Dumas, have explored the ideas of personal, historical and cultural identity through their artworks. These three contemporary artists used different media to express their own experiences in life, and to reveal their particular observations about some of the issues in our society. Through their images, the artists communicate emotions, feelings and thoughts, which are captured by the spectator.

In her "Untitled" work, Cindy Sherman, explores the identity of her gender as  passive, fragile, and vulnerable beings. Through  the image of a sad woman waiting for a phone-call, the artist projects an emotional state, and suggests that women are waiting for something to change their depressive reality. That change could be a new opportunity to women, which would leave behind the awkward  ideas that society has about them, which determined that women are weak, dependent,  incapable to think or to decide by their own. That  phone-call can be a symbol of  freedom. It is time to ring the bell and set women free from the stereotypes established long time ago. The identity of women as a gender has been damaged by the concepts of our society, and the artist communicates  this idea through her artwork.

On the other hand, in his "Untitled" painting, Martin Kippenberger explores the idea of  historical identity. In his self-portrait, the artist presents himself sitting comfortably on a pile of garbage, surrounded by a normal scene in a neighborhood. In his painting, the artist suggests that pollution  is a common aspect of our time, and that  even though we are surrounded by waste, we are comfortable with it. The consumerism, the massive production of  stuff, the constantly seek of comfort and a better lifestyle, has caused a serious pollution in our planet. The world has never experienced an issue with this characteristics before. Objects and plastic saturate our environment, and we cannot see their impact in our lives. The evolution of mankind has determined a major problem in our environment and in our future, so we are the generation that could revert this situation or make it worse. The artist reflects in his painting how we identify as society today, and how we live in this particular time in our history.

Nevertheless, in "Wall Wailing," Marlene Dumas expresses her ideas of cultural identity  through a scene of violence. Violence is part of our daily lives. It  has been growing steadily in certain countries around the globe, and becoming part of the cultural background of many people. The scene of civilians being forced by some agents carrying guns while searching for something in their clothes, transmits some emotions such as frustration, disgust, and  disappointment. Unfortunately,  our eyes have been accustomed to see this situation over and over again. In some cultures, people go out to the streets to protest and fight for their rights because their governments do not want to invest in their education, health, housing or their progress. As a result, governments use violence, force, and guns, with the aim of  keeping the "order" and their power. The culture of violence has the purpose of controlling, terrifying and silencing people. Through this painting, the artist observes how people live under that culture.


In short, these three artists chose different images and mixed media to transmit some thoughts about their personal, historical and cultural  identity in the contemporary society.


Cindy Sherman
"Untitled"
Chromogenic color print
1981

Martin Kippenberger
"Untitled"
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
1981

Marlene Dumas
"Wall Wailing"
Oil in canvas
2009