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Metro Pictures, New York
Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1999)
Sotheby's, New York, 13 May 2009, lot 458
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
(i-ii) New York, Metro Pictures, Cindy Sherman, 15 May-26 June 1999 (another example exhibited)
(i) Cologne, Monika Spruth Galerie, Cindy Sherman: Neue Arbeiten, 5 November 1999-12 February 2000 (another example exhibited)
(i) Paris, Jeu de paume; Gregenz, Kuntshaus Bregenz; Humlebaek; Berlin, Martin-Gropius, Cindy Sherman, 16 May 2006-10 September 2007, pp. 196, 319 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 198, 265)
(ii) Marianne Karabelnik, ed., Stripped Bare: The Body Revealed in Contemporary Art, London, 2004, p. 142 (another example illustrated)
(i) Philipp Kaiser, Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life, Munich, 2016, no. 104, p. 157 (another example illustrated)
(ii) William J. Simmons, Cindy Sherman: 'Goodbye, Little Yellow Bird; or, A Cage of Gold', Flash Art International Magazine, January 2021, online (another example illustrated)
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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