Provenance
Metro Pictures, New York
Exhibited
New York, Metro Picture, Cindy Sherman, 15 November–23 December 2008
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Cindy Sherman, 26 February–11 June 2012, then travelled to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (14 July–8 October 2012) Minneapolis, Walker Art Center (10 November 2012–17 February 2013), Dallas Museum of Art, 17 March–9 June 2013 (another example exhibited)
Literature
E. Respini, Cindy Sherman, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 2012, pl. 104, p. 156 (another example illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
The present lot is from Cindy Sherman’s Society Portraits, a series of works from 2008 that were included in her major retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012. These colour photographs are a continuation of her investigation into ideas of beauty, ageing and self-image. They offer a critique of today’s standards of beauty and glamour as well as issues of class. The characters are women ‘of a certain age’ from the privileged classes struggling with the impossible standards of beauty demanded in our culture.

In this piece, Sherman poses as a politician’s wife, blatantly attempting to appear a certain way: elegant, sophisticated and wealthy. The subject casts herself as a prominent middleaged woman, confronting the viewer with her gaze and pose, far from the gendered positions of vulnerability of her Film Stills and Centerfolds from the late 70s and early 80s. The lush, green background alludes to the character’s status and possessions, in the tradition of portraits of the aristocracy from the Renaissance on. Furthermore, the subject seems to be an apparition in the middle of the forest; this is the first time Sherman uses a green screen and later inserts separate backgrounds digitally. The large-scale format of the picture highlights the visible signs of heavy make-up, wrinkles, exaggerated rouge on the cheeks and a possible face-lift along with the Botoxed forehead, all adding to the theatrical element of her work.

The grotesque and theatrical vein that runs along her work is evident in the Society Portraits. In her 1988-90 series of History Portraits, Sherman’s subjects are explicit references to Old Master paintings such as those by Raphael, Botticelli and Caravaggio. Similarly, the present lot is a direct allusion to society portraits of the dominant class by painters such as George Romney and Thomas Gainsborough. Society Portraits embrace high-society affirmations in a society obsessed with image and status. The subject is floating against the backdrop of her estate and one can immediately place her as a well-to do, middleaged woman probably married to a man in a position of power through visual codes such as her coiffed hair, impeccable dress and fine jewellery. Although she is quite capable of immaculate makeup techniques, her use of these is very evident and can be even jolting and unpleasant. Sherman has developed an extraordinary capability to drastically transform her looks, gender and age, yet in this work she is recognizable and is coming to terms with herself as a mature artist.

Typically of Sherman, this confrontational portrait can be alarming as well as poignant. Disturbing and graceful, the character Sherman impersonates reeks of her own speculation about the self, which is at the heart of Sherman’s work. Her exploration of how identity and gender roles are defined through visual imagery has made Sherman one of the most prominent artists of the second half of the twentieth century.
Artist Biography
Cindy Sherman
American • 1954
Seminal to the Pictures Generation as well as contemporary photography and performance art, Cindy Sherman is a powerhouse art practitioner. Wily and beguiling, Sherman's signature mode of art making involves transforming herself into a litany of characters, historical and fictional, that cross the lines of gender and culture. She startled contemporary art when, in 1977, she published a series of untitled film stills.
Through mise-en-scène and movie-like make-up and costume, Sherman treats each photograph as a portrait, though never one of herself. She embodies her characters even if only for the image itself. Presenting subversion through mimicry, against tableaus of mass media and image-based messages of pop culture, Sherman takes on both art history and the art world.
Though a shape-shifter, Sherman has become an art world celebrity in her own right. The subject of solo retrospectives across the world, including a blockbuster showing at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and a frequent exhibitor at the Venice Biennale among other biennials, Sherman holds an inextricable place in contemporary art history.
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27

Cindy Sherman

Untitled #469

2008
chromogenic colour print
156.5 x 152.4 cm (61 5/8 x 60 in)
Signed, numbered and dated ‘Cindy Sherman 5/6 2008’ on a label affixed to reverse of the backing board. This work is number five from an edition of six.

Estimate
£180,000 - 220,000 ‡

Sold for £205,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

14 February 2013
London

1
Nate Lowman
Green Escalade
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
Sold for £337,250
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2
Rob Pruitt
Power of the Panda (Happy Alone)
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 †
Sold for £115,250
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3
Dan Colen
A Slip of the Tongue
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £133,250
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4
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Black and Canary Yellow Butterfly) #699
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £457,250
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5
Rashid Johnson
Write me In
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
Sold for £85,250
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6
Donald Judd
Untitled (91-149 Menziken)
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000
Sold for £337,250
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7
Christopher Wool
Untitled (P271)
Estimate £1,300,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £1,665,250
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8
Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Look and listen)
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
Sold for £253,250
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9
Andy Warhol
Brillo Soap Pads Box
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
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10
Andy Warhol
Tomato Juice Box
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £223,250
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11
Andy Warhol
Hammer and Sickle
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £247,250
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12
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate £1,800,000 - 2,500,000 ‡
Sold for £1,945,250
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13
Andy Warhol
Beatle Boots (Negative)
Estimate £550,000 - 650,000 ‡
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14
Jean-Michel Basquiat
For B.A.M.
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £763,830
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15
Banksy
Bomb Middle England
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £229,250
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16
Jonathan Wateridge
Jungle River Landscape with Plane Wreck
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £109,250
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17
Albert Oehlen
Student II
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡♠
Sold for £169,250
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18
Jean Dubuffet
Le Chien Rodeur
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £325,250
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19
Cecily Brown
East of Eden
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £724,450
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20
Damien Hirst
Untitled 2 (Spot Painting)
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £295,250
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21
Marc Quinn
Frozen Head
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £713,250
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22
This lot is no longer available.
23
Rosemarie Trockel
Waterfall
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ♠
Sold for £361,250
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24
Richard Prince
What Can You Do?
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡
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25
Elizabeth Peyton
Dr. Scarpinato (Vincent)
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
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26
George Condo
Untitled (Choo Choo)
Estimate £350,000 - 450,000 ‡
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27
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #469
Estimate £180,000 - 220,000 ‡
Sold for £205,250
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28
The Bruce High Quality Foundation
Las Meninas
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
Sold for £181,250
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29
Thomas Houseago
Caryatide with Squatting Man
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠†
Sold for £73,250
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30
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ‡♠
Sold for £79,250
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31
Ryan Sullivan
July 24, 2011 - September 28, 2011
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000
Sold for £91,250
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32
Mark Tansey
Study for the Valley of Doubt
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
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33
Yan Pei-Ming
Invisible Man no. 1
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
Sold for £163,250
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34
Isa Genzken
Empire/Vampire
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
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35
Sterling Ruby
Monument Stalagmite/Headbanger
Estimate £70,000 - 100,000 †
Sold for £85,250
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36
Marc Quinn
Careless Desire
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £157,250
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

14 February 2013 London

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Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Cindy Sherman

27

Cindy Sherman

Untitled #469

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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14 February 2013
London