Cindy Sherman: Well, I think that with the theorists and the, you know, people who were looking for to try to define the art that was going on within my generation, I think it’s sort of somehow maybe easily really showed like it was just — I don’t know, like a good, a good example of what they were trying to say. And because it looked like something we all recognized from a movie, like, you don’t have to have an art degree to recognize that, oh, that’s a movie still. And so, I think it just illustrated the point so much clearer. I suppose, a lot of times, I felt like my images from a group show were the ones that were used within an article to review the show or something. And so, I think that kind of helped the, you know, the attention that I was getting at that time. But as a result, I also felt because I felt sort of singled out from my friends that I started to feel like animosity, you know, like, “Oh, she’s getting all the press,” or she’s getting this or that. And so, that was like a weird position to be in, so it wasn’t always great.
Not many artists become a sensation with their first series. Did that put pressure on you?
I didn’t really feel like it was like a sensation. I mean, I feel like the attention was more over time. I mean, in the beginning, yes, I got some good little reviews, but I feel like it’s only later as I’ve done other things that people, like, still go back to that early work and like hold it up as this thing. Yeah, at the time, I certainly didn’t feel like I was like a sensation or, you know, a big success. You know, I was selling them for $50 apiece at the first show I had, and then had some collectors want 10% off. So yeah, I didn’t really feel like it was like suddenly overnight, like just rolling in money or anything, that happened, you know, it was like that was slow going. Especially in the 80s, I felt more competitive, and I guess was jealous of a lot of the male artists who were also considered within that same appropriation group that were doing, you know, fabulously and selling and making lots of money.