Examining the Concept of Self-construction in Contemporary Art by Looking at the Works of Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, and Sherry Levine

“Adaptation” or “self-construction” means reproducing or imitating other artists’ works. Many contemporary artists re-enact their previous works with new media and in the form of new concepts. In the art of “self-construction”, the artist uses earlier works to restore them to the world of art or with a new approach to his works. The aim of this research is to explore the concept of self-development in contemporary art by examining the works of Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman and Sherry Levin. This search was conducted using the analytical-descriptive method. The methodology for the collection of research information is a library. The findings of the research have shown that artistic self-improvement is the art of borrowing pre-existing images and creating new work, and it is called the effort of artists to use images and objects with a little manipulation of the original in their work. In addition, Sherman’s works are the essence of humour and irony and are postmodern. Self-enhancement in Sherman’s works is formed in the form of quotations of the most important questions of his time. The question of reference and self-construction in Sherman’s works is not a part of the work, but the set-up of the work. Sherman should be considered an artist who photographs her shows. Sherman’s self-destruction is plural in the form of quotes from various sources. In the West, Kruger’s works have a key and decisive position in the realm of dominant thought and are regarded as one of the most stable thematic artistic methods. It is moving toward a rethinking of gender identity. Her works are not considered, only feminist and in some cases, political and social tendencies are visible in her works. Sherry Levine also produced an enormous amount of pictures of this self-improvement. In addition to photographs, she creates paintings and sculptures from well-known works of art.