Cindy Sherman - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Friday, October 12, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Metro Pictures, New York

  • Literature

    Z. Felix and M. Schwander, eds., Cindy Sherman: Photographic Work 1975-1995, Munich, 1995,(.....); A. Cruz, A. jones and E. Smith, Cindy sherman: Retrospective, New York, 1997, n.p, no. 127 ([i] another example illustrated); R. Krauss, Cindy Sherman 1975-1993, New York, 1993, pp. 204-205 (another example illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Sherman heightens the spectacle of the sexual act by isolating genital parts and coding them with fantasies of desire, possession, and imaginary knowledge. The instrumentality of these photographs lies in their tantalizing paradox: offering for scrutiny what is usually forbidden to sight, they appear to produce a knowledge of what sex looks like (hence Sherman's subtle humor in using medical dummies), but simultaneously are not real. The dummies diminish the sense of pliant flesh, distancing the spectator from the body, yet props such as luxurious fabrics focus sensuality. Positioned close to the picture plane, the models invite an intimate viewing relationship....In the '60s and '70s, women using their bodies as subject and site of their art tended to explore feminine history in relation to nature. Carolee Schneemann, Mary Beth Edelson, Ana Mendieta, and others displayed their sexuality as both natural and empowering....Sherman's representation of female sexuality, in contrast, indulges the desire to see, to make sure of the private and the forbidden, but withholds both narcissistic identification with the female body and that body's objectification as the basis for erotic pleasure.
    J. Avgikos, "Cindy Sherman: Bringing Down the House", Artforum, January, 1993, pp. 78-79

  • 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

300

Two Works: (i) Untitled #252; (ii) Untitled #262

1992
C-print.
75 x 50 in. (190.5 x 127 cm) each.
Signed, numbered of six and dated “Cindy Sherman 1992” on the reverse of each. Each work is from an edition of six.

Estimate
£40,000 - 60,000 

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

Evening Sale
13 October 2007, 4pm
London