Cindy Sherman (b. 1954)

Untitled #97, #98, #99 and #100

Details

Cindy Sherman (b. 1954)
Untitled #97, #98, #99 and #100
signed, numbered and dated 'Cindy Sherman 7/10 1982' on the reverse
color coupler print
47¾ x 297/8in. (121.9 x 75.8cm.)
This work is number seven from an edition of ten.

Provenance

Metro Pictures, New York

Literature

P. Schjeldahl and M. Danoff, Cindy Sherman, New York 1984 (illustrated, pl. 62).
I. Takano and L. Simmons, Cindy Sherman, Tokyo 1987 (illustrated, p. 42 and cover).
R. Krauss, Cindy Sherman 1975-1993, New York 1993, p. 99 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Kassel, Documenta 7, 1982 (another print exhibited).
Stony Brook, State University of Stony Brook, Fine Arts Center; and Middletown, Wesleyan University, Zilkha Gallery, Cindy Sherman, November-December 1983 (another print exhibited).
Cincinnati, Contemporary Arts Center, Jenny Holzer and Cindy Sherman: Personae, 1986, p. 18 (illustration; another print exhibited).
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Cindy Sherman, July-October 1987 (illustrated, pl. 62; another print exhibited).
Hamburg, Deichtorhallen; Malmö Kunsthall; and Luzern, Kunstmuseum, Cindy Sherman: Photoarbeiten 1975-1995, May 1995-February 1996 (illustrated, pl. 44; another print exhibited).
Shiga, Museum of Modern Art; Marugame Genichiro--Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art; and Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cindy Sherman, July-December 1996, p. 98, no. 41 (illustrated; another print exhibited).
Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art; Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art; and Prague, Galerie Rudolfinum, Cindy Sherman Retrospective, November 1997-August 1998, p. 108 (illustrated, pl. 79; another print exhibited).

Lot Essay

Sherman's 1982 series of four large format vertical portaits took up the cue she had given herself in the horizontal series (see lot 9), namely to be able to turn the image and read it vertically. She worked here without make-up and in an empty setting giving us what Peter Schjeldahl called "a glimpse of 'the real Cindy'." (in Cindy Sherman, exh. cat., New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1984, p. 10) "They are, to put it mildly, her least ingratiating pictures, as if to say, "You think you want me? Okay, here I am, Mac." They convey a state of loveless intimacy, intimacy without understanding or personal tenderness, exactly the unadmitted condition of fan/star symbiosis. Giving a peek at the sulfurous underside of role-playing and vicariousness, they advise us to stay on the surface if we know what's good for us--and what is good, perhaps, about art in general. The surface is everything. Furthermore, the surface is all."