Cindy Sherman - New Now New York Wednesday, September 27, 2023 | Phillips
  • “I’ve come to the point where I understand how people can manipulate themselves to look a certain way. I’m disgusted with how people get themselves to look beautiful; I’m much more fascinated with the other side.”
     —Cindy Sherman

    • Provenance

      Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
      Private Collection (acquired from the above)
      Sotheby's, New York, May 15, 2008, lot 417
      Skarstedt Gallery, New York
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Cindy Sherman, July 9–October 4, 1987, p. 19 (another example exhibited)
      Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art; Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art; Prague, Galerie Rudolfinum; London, Barbican Art Gallery; Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux; Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art; Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Cindy Sherman: Retrospective, November 2, 1997–January 2, 2000, pl. 101, pp. 134–135, 198 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 135)

    • Literature

      Cindy Sherman: Photographien, exh. cat., Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, 1985, n.p. (another example illustrated)

    • 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

147

Untitled #154

signed and dated "Cindy Sherman 1985" on the reverse; partially titled and numbered "154 3/5" on the reverse of the frame
chromogenic print
72 1/2 x 49 in. (184.2 x 124.5 cm)
Executed in 1985, this work is number 3 from an edition of 5.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000 

Contact Specialist

Avery Semjen
Associate Specialist, Head of New Now Sale 
T +1 212 940 1207
asemjen@phillips.com

New Now

New York Auction 27 September 2023