Lot 429
429
CINDY SHERMAN (B. 1954)
CINDY SHERMAN (B. 1954)

Untitled Film Still (#14)

Details
CINDY SHERMAN (B. 1954)
Untitled Film Still (#14)
signed, numbered and dated 'Cindy Sherman 2/3 1978' (on the reverse)
gelatin silver print
40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm.)
Executed in 1978. This work is number two from an edition of three.
Provenance
Metro Pictures, New York
Anon. sale; Christie's, New York, 14 May 2002, lot 47
Private collection, New York
Literature
L. Thomas and P. D'Agostino, eds., Still Photography: The Problematic Model, San Francisco, 1981, p. 21 (illustrated).
A.C. Danto, Cindy Sherman: Untitled Film Stills, New York 1990, pl. 12 (illustrated).
R. Krauss, Cindy Sherman 1975-1993, New York 1993, pp. 69 and 224 (illustrated).
Exhibited
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Boston Institute of Contemporary Art and Dallas Museum of Art, Cindy Sherman, July-October 1987, pl.12 (illustrated, another example exhibited).
Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation, May-August 1989, p. 56 (illustrated, another example exhibited).
Geneva, Museum of Modern and Contemporary ArtMamco, Rudiments 1 (camera candida), September 1994-February 1995.
Geneva, Museum of Modern and Contemporary ArtMamco, Rudiments 2 (camera candida), February 1995-June 1995.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Cindy Sherman, July-October 1987, pl. 12 (illustrated, another example exhibited).
Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Directions: Cindy Sherman: Film Stills, March-June 1995, pl. 14 (illustrated, another example exhibited).
Hamburg, Deichtorhallen; Malmö, Kunsthall and Lucerne, Kunstmuseum, Cindy Sherman: Photographic Work 1975-1995, May 1995-February 1996, pl. 21 (illustrated, another example exhibited).
Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art; Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art; Prague, Galerie Rudolfinum; London, Barbican Art Gallery; Bordeaux, capc Musée d'art Contemporain; Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art and Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Cindy Sherman Retrospective, November 1997-January 2000, p. 63, pl.15 (illustrated, another example exhibited).
Geneva, Atelier de l'Ecole Superieure d'Art Visuel, All Star (jeune artiste cherche modèle), May-June 1998.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Remix, November-March 1999.
Paris, Jeu de Paume; Bregenz, Kunsthaus Bregenz; Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Cindy Sherman, May 2006-September 2007, pp. 241 (illustrated, another example exhibited).
Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Rolenbilder--Rollenspiele, July-October 2011 (another example exhibited).
New York, Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center and Dallas Museum of Art, Cindy Sherman, February 2012-June 2013, p. 107, pl. 44 (illustrated, another example exhibited).

Lot Essay

Untitled Film Still (#14) (1978) is among Cindy Sherman's most thoughtfully and exquisitely staged Film Stills. Using her own living space as a set and darkroom, Sherman strategically positions her mirror, table, and portrait to create this narrated tableaux. Portraying the role of a dark-haired vixen, Sherman's character wields her evening bag like a weapon as she casts a hesitant glance in the direction of a visitor whose presence is only suggested by drifting cigarette smoke and a coat hung over the chair that is visible only in the reflection of the mirror. Anticipating such series as the Centerfolds, these situations, in which women are compromised of victimized, highlight Sherman's interest since the 1970s in drawing attention to the issues surrounding the representation of women-particularly in photography and film.

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