Sarah’s presentation explored the ways in which the installation of Cindy Sherman’s Madame de Pompadour (nee Poisson) Soup Tureen and Platter, 1990, at the Pulitzer Foundation paid homage to its namesake, the mistress of Louis XIV. Cartouches containing silkscreen photographs of the artist posing as Mme de Pompadour anchor the decorative scheme of the pink Rococo-style soup tureen. The possibilities for the mistress/artist seem infinite, as she is seated before an expansive and highly manicured Neo-Classical garden landscape. The idea of restriction is introduced by the work’s placement in the show Portraiture/Homage/Embodiment. Set inside a small niche, the work is framed by a window that overlooks a patch of grass partitioned off by a concrete wall. The containment of the actual landscape may be understood as a metaphor for the limitations of a life lived exclusively in service of the king. As the image also represents Sherman, it could suggest continuing restrictions on women in the contemporary art world.

Thus, the placement of Sherman’s Soup Tureen at the Pulitzer Foundation intensified themes present in the work, bringing up several topics for discussion at the symposium. In what ways is it significant that Sherman chose to acknowledge her source? To what extent is it useful to consider the parallels between the artist and Mme de Pompadour? Is it worthwhile to linger over the details of the historical figure, and if not, what might be another approach? Finally, how might our discussion of the work differ had it been placed before a focal point of the Pulitzer Foundation’s architecture, Tadao Ando’s seemingly endless reflecting pool?