Cindy Sherman - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, April 24, 2018 | Phillips

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  • Catalogue Essay

    Madame de Pompadour (née Poisson) was an unflappable force within the court of Louis XV. The French beauty’s early exercises in self-promotion landed her the position of maîtresse en titre, the chief royal mistress at court. Portraits of this Madame by Francois Boucher, her painter of choice, depicted a cunning arts patron. Such depictions came to surprising fruition in 1756 when, after her partnership with Louis XV ended, she maintained her courtly position through the takeover of a previously failing porcelain factory. She flipped the firm just a few years later in a sale directly to the royal court. In 1988 as she began her history portraits, Cindy Sherman started to devise this service-set that was inspired by designs of Madame de Pompadour’s factory in Vincennes. Like that 18th-century ingénue, Sherman sported a powdered wig and flamboyant costume —as well as prosthetic breasts— in this reminder of the historical figure’s astonishing shrewdness and critique upon complicity in the commodification of one’s own body.

  • 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.

    View More Works

108

Madame de Pompadour (née Poisson) soup tureen

1990
Porcelain soup tureen in three parts, with screenprinted elements, hand-painting in platinum and glaze.
12 x 21 3/4 x 14 in. (30.5 x 55.2 x 35.6 cm)
Each element with printed signature and numbered '13 j 25' in black glaze (there were four editions of 25 in pink, green, blue and yellow), published by Artes Magnus, New York.

Estimate
$8,000 - 12,000 

Sold for $10,000

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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 24 April 2018