Provenance
Metro Pictures, New York
Exhibited
London, Serpentine Gallery, Cindy Sherman, 3 June – 25 August 2003 (another example exhibited)
New York, Metro Pictures, Cindy Sherman, 8 May – 26 June 2004
Catalogue Essay
“I didn’t want to make ‘high’ art, I had no interest in using paint, I wanted to find something that anyone could relate to without knowing about contemporary art.”
CINDY SHERMAN

Untitled #410 belongs to Cindy Sherman’s Clowns series executed between 2003 and 2004. It is one of the first five images from the series, and an edition of this particular work is housed in the permanent collection of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

“The appearance of the clown in Cindy Sherman’s work was, without doubt, inevitable. Sherman’s taste for masquerades and dressing up, the mixture of the grotesque and serious, her hysterical chameleonism, all combine to conjure the essence of clowns and clowning, hinted at in early works … The clown is the logical extension of many fundamental themes in Cindy Sherman’s work. But Sherman is now no longer interested in exploring the infinite potential of dressing up, disguise, and impersonation, the virtuoso game of borrowed identities that has unfolded so far. On the contrary, the clown series adopts a single, universally familiar type whose attributes remain more or less constant. Sherman’s purpose is to suggest the range of physiognomies and facial expressions of emotion that may be glimpsed via the stereotype itself.”
(Cindy Sherman, exh. cat., Paris, Jeu de Paume, 2006, p. 253)

Untitled #410 shows the artist dressed in a flamboyant clown costume with disorderly makeup – and of course, the disturbing quality of clown’s maquillage is widely acknowledged. The permanent forced smile inescapably hints at an anxious or turbulent character beneath the seemingly joyful mask, while the figure floats in a digitally-produced sea of psychedelic colour and pattern. It produces a hypnotic hold on the viewer: one is cautious to gaze into the picture for too long for fear of enchantment. Sherman’s clown is a far cry from Picasso’s harlequin, but Untitled #410 goes even further beyond the unsettling boundaries governing a clown’s traditional costume and makeup, with elongated features of freakish proportions, an uncharacteristic cowboy hat, and wild unkempt red hair. Like Rondinone’s worn-out clown, all this leads to revealing the underlying pathos of the clown – not the hysterically happy children’s entertainer of
convention, but a figure as depicted in horror films.
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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Ο◆7

Cindy Sherman

Untitled #410

2003
Colour photograph.
141 x 101.5 cm (55 1/2 x 39 7/8 in).
Signed, dated ‘Cindy Sherman 2003’ and numbered of 6 on the reverse of the backing. This work is from an edition of 6.

Estimate
£200,000 - 300,000 ‡

Sold for £433,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

16 February 2012
London

1
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2
Joe Bradley
Killroy
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000
Sold for £49,250
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3
Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £85,250
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4
Christopher Wool
Untitled
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000
Sold for £169,250
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5
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £450,000 - 650,000 ‡♠
Sold for £505,250
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6
Marc Quinn
The Golden Column (Microcosmos)
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £289,250
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7
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #410
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £433,250
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8
Ugo Rondinone
VIERZEHNTEROKTOBERZWEITAUSENDUNDNULL
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000
Sold for £157,250
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9
Takashi Murakami
Troll’s Umbrella
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £385,250
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10
Thomas Schütte
Gelber Hund
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £241,250
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11
Isa Genzken
Dubai
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
Sold for £61,250
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12
Andy Warhol
Mao
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡
Sold for £457,250
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13
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14
George Condo
Woman in Blue Chair
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £205,250
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15
Damien Hirst
Wretched War
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 Ω♠
Sold for £325,250
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16
Andreas Gursky
Jumeirah Palm
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ♠
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17
Lucio Fontana
Concetto spaziale, Attese
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18
Roni Horn
When Dickinson Shut Her Eyes, no. 1259
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000
Sold for £121,250
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19
Richard Prince
My Funny Valentine
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Sold for £181,250
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20
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (HALF-EATEN)
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Sold for £181,250
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21
Ahmed Alsoudani
Untitled
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £229,250
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22
Walead Beshty
FedEx® Kraft Box© 2005: FedEx Standard Overnight Los Angeles–New York, trk# 8675 2590 1103; FedEx Standard Overnight New York–Washington, trk# 8631 3319 4523, date April 13–14 2009; FedEx Standard Overnight Washington–Miami, trk# 7950 0886 1541, date July 26–27 2011; International Priority Miami–London, trk # 8439 1188 5383, date January 11–13, 2012
Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 ‡♠
Sold for £58,850
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23
John Armleder
Alchemilla Vulgaris
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24
Damien Hirst
Sensation
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25
Alex Katz
Ada on Green
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26
Olafur Eliasson
The Path Series
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000 ‡♠
Sold for £68,450
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27
Raymond Pettibon
Untitled (The view from beyond the breakers)
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000
Sold for £157,250
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

16 February 2012 London

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Cindy Sherman

Ο◆7

Cindy Sherman

Untitled #410

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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16 February 2012
London