Sherman's clowns feature riotous makeup, flamboyant costumes and digitally produced backgrounds of synthetic colours and patterns. Behind the visual lushness and latent humour/horror of the portraits lies the artist's interest in revealing the underlying pathos of the hysterically happy or intensely nasty clown. Sherman has said she 'uses clowns to show the multi-layered emotional depths within a painted smile'.

Provenance

Metro Pictures, New York.