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Lot Essay
‘I feel I’m anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren’t self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear.’ (C. Sherman, quoted in G. Collins ‘A Portraitist’s Romp Through Art History’, in The New York Times, 1 February 1990).
Instantly recognisable, Untitled Film Still #17 forms part of Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills series, which is regarded as the most influential and celebrated series of her oeuvre. Created between the years of 1977 and 1980, the Untitled Film Stills generated new vistas in the field of photography and contemporary art. Both cannily familiar, yet impossible to identify, Sherman poses as female protagonist from the world of cinema. However, the Untitled Film Stills do not exist in any ‘original’ form, not in an actual film, nor in a publicity shot or ad, rather they are caught in an unusual limbo, the peculiar condition of being a copy without an original. The subject of a camera that is both in a persistent and voyeuristic pursuit of the artist, Untitled Film Still #17 opens the camera frame to a snap shot of Sherman who masquerades as an innocent young woman in a large city. Here the dominant buildings dwarf the woman making her appear both delicate and small. The woman’s fragility and innocence are even further suggested by the fact that she looks to be hiding behind her headscarf, while her large, fearful eyes stare out to the viewer, almost begging for help. It is the anxiety and tension that Sherman manages to portray in Untitled Film Still #17 that makes it such a remarkable example of the series.
In the series of Film Stills, Sherman is photographed alone as a character that represents various archetypal female roles that were prevalent in postwar America. Some examples include the glamorous actress, the woman in tears and the caring housewife. Sherman creates this range of female personae by fashioning an assortment of vintage clothing, wigs and make-up, which she then photographed in different environments. The title of this series was chosen by Sherman to make a direct reference to the ‘publicity stills like you’d see around 42nd Street, in boxes of hundreds of them for thirty-five cents each’ (C. Sherman quoted in ‘Cindy Sherman’, Flash Art, no.124, Oct. – Nov. 1985, p.78). Like stills from movies, the viewer would be able to interpret the works as they wished. However the very genius of Untitled Film Still #17, along with the other pictures in this series, is that although the characters are invented, the viewer does still instantly recognise them and it is this that gives the Untitled Film Stills such an uncanny and mysterious nature.
Sherman has purposefully constructed the photographs to subtly demonstrate that gender is in a constant state of flux, and therefore addresses stereotypes in Western cultures. Sherman believed that this caused a great amount of distress and instability for the female sex: ‘I suppose unconsciously or semiconsciously at best, I was wrestling with some sort of turmoil of my own about understanding of women. These characters weren’t dummies; they weren’t just airhead actress. They were women struggling with something but I didn’t know what. The clothes make them look a certain way, but then you look at their expression, however slight it may be, and wonder if maybe ‘they’ are not what the clothes are communicating... I definitely felt that the characters were questioning something’ (C. Sherman quoted in D. Frankel, The Complete Untitled Film Stills Cindy Sherman, New York 2003, p. 10). Untitled Film Still #17 is an outstanding example from Sherman’s most ground breaking series that demonstrates that art can be both a critical comment on society and a catalyst to change it for the better.
Instantly recognisable, Untitled Film Still #17 forms part of Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills series, which is regarded as the most influential and celebrated series of her oeuvre. Created between the years of 1977 and 1980, the Untitled Film Stills generated new vistas in the field of photography and contemporary art. Both cannily familiar, yet impossible to identify, Sherman poses as female protagonist from the world of cinema. However, the Untitled Film Stills do not exist in any ‘original’ form, not in an actual film, nor in a publicity shot or ad, rather they are caught in an unusual limbo, the peculiar condition of being a copy without an original. The subject of a camera that is both in a persistent and voyeuristic pursuit of the artist, Untitled Film Still #17 opens the camera frame to a snap shot of Sherman who masquerades as an innocent young woman in a large city. Here the dominant buildings dwarf the woman making her appear both delicate and small. The woman’s fragility and innocence are even further suggested by the fact that she looks to be hiding behind her headscarf, while her large, fearful eyes stare out to the viewer, almost begging for help. It is the anxiety and tension that Sherman manages to portray in Untitled Film Still #17 that makes it such a remarkable example of the series.
In the series of Film Stills, Sherman is photographed alone as a character that represents various archetypal female roles that were prevalent in postwar America. Some examples include the glamorous actress, the woman in tears and the caring housewife. Sherman creates this range of female personae by fashioning an assortment of vintage clothing, wigs and make-up, which she then photographed in different environments. The title of this series was chosen by Sherman to make a direct reference to the ‘publicity stills like you’d see around 42nd Street, in boxes of hundreds of them for thirty-five cents each’ (C. Sherman quoted in ‘Cindy Sherman’, Flash Art, no.124, Oct. – Nov. 1985, p.78). Like stills from movies, the viewer would be able to interpret the works as they wished. However the very genius of Untitled Film Still #17, along with the other pictures in this series, is that although the characters are invented, the viewer does still instantly recognise them and it is this that gives the Untitled Film Stills such an uncanny and mysterious nature.
Sherman has purposefully constructed the photographs to subtly demonstrate that gender is in a constant state of flux, and therefore addresses stereotypes in Western cultures. Sherman believed that this caused a great amount of distress and instability for the female sex: ‘I suppose unconsciously or semiconsciously at best, I was wrestling with some sort of turmoil of my own about understanding of women. These characters weren’t dummies; they weren’t just airhead actress. They were women struggling with something but I didn’t know what. The clothes make them look a certain way, but then you look at their expression, however slight it may be, and wonder if maybe ‘they’ are not what the clothes are communicating... I definitely felt that the characters were questioning something’ (C. Sherman quoted in D. Frankel, The Complete Untitled Film Stills Cindy Sherman, New York 2003, p. 10). Untitled Film Still #17 is an outstanding example from Sherman’s most ground breaking series that demonstrates that art can be both a critical comment on society and a catalyst to change it for the better.