Cindy Sherman signed for M*A*C Self-portraits for Fall 2011

Written by Judith Lipskar Monday, 14 May 2012 22:41

Toronto, Canada - Photographer Cindy Sherman and MAC have teamed up on a fall makeup collection, and MAC just released some totally eye-catching promo shots. The images artfully depict what could be described as makeup malfunctions, but since it's Cindy Sherman, a photographer famous for using her own face as a canvas, we'll chalk them up to seriously cool works of art that fall under MAC's motto of makeup as "Our medium of transformation." Using three different palettes, Sherman stars as three unique characters—a clown, an overdone doyenne, and what seems to be a pink-cheeked ingénue. Besides the vivid "clown" collection, for the most part, the products are beautifully wearable.

Sherman, now in her late 50s, has been doing just that for more than three decades. She has always been the subject of her own work, and earlier this year sold a self-portrait for $3.89m (£2.4m) – the highest price ever paid for a single photograph. And yet she remains anonymous. In her photographs, she uses makeup to transform herself, becoming simultaneously obscure and mesmerizing. One moment she is Marilyn Monroe, the next a woman lying dead and gravel-grazed in a road – the next a creature with a woman's hands and a pig's snout.

From Hello Kitty and Wonder Woman to RuPaul and Rodarte, MAC collaborations have pretty much run the gamut from one side of the weird/kooky/cool pop culture spectrum to the other. Just last week, the cosmetics company announced that Nicki Minaj and Ricky Martin (interestingly enough) would represent the brand in their 2012 Viva Glam campaign. The kitsch factor runs high with MAC, and seems to underlie almost every project they take on (the Disney Venomous Villians collection?). And that sense of humor definitely shows through in its newest collaboration with off-kilter-but-awesome American photographer Cindy Sherman, whose daring, conceptual self-portraits question and challenge the way women are portrayed -- and often stereotyped -- in society.

M•A•C is forever asking “Why not?” when it comes to the miracles of makeup – our medium for transformation – always exploring new ideas about the many ways we long to look and feel different for a day, a night, a lifetime. With the help of props, makeup, prosthetics, wigs and sets, artist Cindy Sherman embodies this Power of Transformation – from off-kilter Hitchcock heroine to fresh corpse, Caravaggio Portrait to Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Maven – all elaborate exercises in trying on different personas.

In the campaign we’ve longed forever to conceive, Cindy Sherman for M•A•C created three characters using three different colour stories. We’re living in a time when people of all persuasions have become bolder than ever about the ways they choose to express themselves: with a colourful palette of possibilities, You are the Artist, You are your own Subject, and no matter how fearfully you begin, you become fearless in the process. We can’t wait to see what you (and the genius that is Cindy Sherman) do next!

Most makeup campaigns, unsurprisingly, use beautiful models to impress upon women how wonderful the cosmetics will make them look. Also, to make them feel inferior, ugly, and more likely to reach for their purse.

MAC has always taken a different tack. Its models have included Lady Gaga, Missy Elliott, kd lang, the drag queen RuPaul, and Elton John. It is a rare woman who wants to look like Elton John. It has positioned itself as the makeup company of outsiders and artists: all the people who want to be different, to be utterly transformed, much, much more than they want to be pretty.

Make-up Art Cosmetics, better known as M·A·C or MAC Cosmetics, is a manufacturer of cosmetics founded and headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

M·A·C Cosmetics, Makeup Art Cosmetics, was founded in Toronto, Canada by Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo in 1984. The first U.S M·A·C store opened in 1991, in Greenwich Village, New York.

On January 28, 2011, Warner Bros. Consumer Products announced that DC Comics iconic heroine Wonder Woman will team up with M·A·C Cosmetics to create a Wonder Woman makeup collection that will be available in M·A·C stores in the summer of 2011. The collection includes blush, eye shadow, eyeliner, lip gloss, lipstick, mascara, mineral powder and nail polish.


The company's products were initially specifically designed for professional make-up artists, but are now sold to consumers worldwide. Estée Lauder Companies acquired controlling interest of M·A·C in 1994, then completed their acquisition of the company in 1998. Original founder, Frank Angelo, died in 1997 due to complications during surgery.

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