We all know that female artists are underrepresented in galleries and art history tomes in addition to earning less than their male counterparts. Duh–that’s one of the main reasons Women & Their Work exists. But as a new documentary reveals, there’s another annoying peril that awaits the woman artist: the boyfriend who can’t deal with your success.
Even though photographer Cindy Sherman was already a certified art star with a celebrated 20-year career under her belt when she met and fell in love with filmmaker Paul H-O in the mid-90s, the dude seems utterly taken aback that her lifestyle had a certain corresponding cachet that his lacked. According to H-O in his new doc Guest of Cindy Sherman, he suffered while dating Sherman because his identity “went into hibernation or was subsumed by this much greater force… In the old days there were these things called Rolodexes with little cards. Mine had like 10 cards, and hers had 1,000. And, you know, Salman Rushdie would be in hers. Her world was a lot bigger and more powerful than mine.”
Awww. Wouldn’t it have been a lot hotter of him to acknowledge how lucky he was to share five interesting years with a rad, creative lady? And as for his assertion, “I know what it feels like to be a wife that no one pays attention to”–implying that because he is male, he shouldn’t have to occupy the role of less-famous partner? So. Over it. And Cindy Sherman is apparently over it, too.
I Dated Cindy Sherman…and All I Got Was This Documentary[Salon]
Cindy Sherman’s Un-Famous Ex-Boyfriend Finds That “Being A Wife” Is the Pits[Jezebel]
It doesn’t sound as if the person that wrote this post saw the film. No mention of David Furnish and his empathic confessions being the wife/husband/partner to Elton John. Most of the viscera on Jezebel came from bloggers that hadn’t seen the film, but like to judge me all the same. Same as in hearsay conformity.
In the film I’m also shown marching with WAC while in drag (as Louise Nevelson) in front of Pace Gallery – protesting the underepresentation of women artists.
There is also a scene with Lori E. Seid, one of my best friend’s and Rosie O’s producer. That scene was for Day Without Art – where I worked with Nan Goldin on the Artists Committee of Visual Aids, 1989 on.
You can say whatever you want about me, it’s our right, but I’ve been on the ground and in the trenches for civil rights, human rights, sexist rights, wrongful rights, you name it, a good lefthander for 40 goddam years.
So I made a movie that actually does something you obviously miss. That I love Cindy.