9 Cindy Sherman Untitled #426 2004 color photograph 79 1/2 x 54 3/4 in. (201.9 x 139.1 cm) Signed, numbered and dated “Cindy Sherman, 2004, 5/6” on a label affixed to the reverse of the backing board. This work is number five from an edition of six.
Provenance Metro Pictures, New York Exhibited New York, Metro Pictures, Cindy Sherman May 8 – June 26, 2005 (another example exhibited) London, Simon Lee Gallery, Cindy Sherman Clowns, November 26, 2004 – January 15, 2005 (another example exhibited) Literature M. Schlüter, Cindy Sherman Clowns, Munich, 2004, p. 38 (another example illustrated) R. Durand, Cindy Sherman Paris, Jeu de Paume, 2006, p. 224 (another example illustrated) Catalogue Essay Starting with her Untitled Film Stills in the 1970s, through her latest series of Clowns, Cindy Sherman has assumed a dual role: that of artist and of performer. In this latest series, she explores and discovers the masquerade of a multi-faceted character - the clown. Sherman, however, does not merely offer the sad Pierrot, the stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell’Arte pining for love. Pierrot’s naïveté regarding social reality famously invites sympathy and even trust, but Sherman’s clowns go beyond the clueless buffoon. These clowns are not misanthropes aware of life’s injustices, who despite their awareness entertain their audience with beaming grins and rosy cheeks. These clowns function as an exaggeration, a commercial variant of the melancholic jester. The aggressive make-up appears strident and harsh in the bright lights. His gaiety is no longer amusing, but irritating. The subject in Untitled # 426, 2004, is not part of the romantic touring troupe of comedians and actors, but a puppet of happiness, a superficial maker of joy, even a sadistic and brutal perpetrator. Each portrait in this series presents a particular cliché of the century old profession of clowning and entertaining as constructed and reinforced through culture, and finally, acted out by Sherman herself. In this series of clowns, as seen in her early black and white Untitled Film Stills, Sherman carefully manipulates pose, gesture, costume, makeup, lighting, and composition to create portraits of both the real and the imagined. By using digital image processing technology, Sherman is able to manipulate and dictate precisely how the final image should stand. She is able to multiply herself and stage herself as a group of persons, or in the case of the present lot, Untitled # 426, 2004, create a backdrop of vibrant and intense Technicolor. With each series, Sherman repeatedly finds new contemporary forms of representation and consistently advances the topics and subjects which have connected her work through its four decade span. In discussing her latest series in a recent interview, Cindy Sherman explains, “I didn’t want to just do traditional portraits of clowns, but push things further. But there actually are clowns with teeth painted on their mouths. As a guide I started with depictions of clowns that I found in books or on the Internet. The greatest challenge for me was to allow a personality to emerge from behind the clown make-up: a personality that has nothing to do with my own. It was important to me that each of these personalities look different: I wanted in a way to find something making the make-up, something that shimmers through.” (Cindy Sherman 2004 taken from an interview with Isabelle Graw, No Make-Up, from Cindy Sherman Clowns, Munich, 2004, p. 54). As an iconic figure, the clown is considered the maker of uninhibited enjoyment, the merchant of open-minded fun and the architect of happiness. He is the jester and fool who faces one misfortune after another, yet brings joy to his audience as he stumbles and falls, slips and slides, swings and misses. Clowns project an air of happiness and joy that overshadows the injustices of life. Hardships are staged as melancholic gestures, and thus, are infused with lightheartedness, transforming tragedy into enjoyment. Each of the clown personas—from the sad loner to the enigmatic magician—turns all that is right upside down, and all that is serious into jest. While these characters are contradictory by nature, it is the precise contradiction t
9 Cindy Sherman Untitled #426 2004 color photograph 79 1/2 x 54 3/4 in. (201.9 x 139.1 cm) Signed, numbered and dated “Cindy Sherman, 2004, 5/6” on a label affixed to the reverse of the backing board. This work is number five from an edition of six.
Provenance Metro Pictures, New York Exhibited New York, Metro Pictures, Cindy Sherman May 8 – June 26, 2005 (another example exhibited) London, Simon Lee Gallery, Cindy Sherman Clowns, November 26, 2004 – January 15, 2005 (another example exhibited) Literature M. Schlüter, Cindy Sherman Clowns, Munich, 2004, p. 38 (another example illustrated) R. Durand, Cindy Sherman Paris, Jeu de Paume, 2006, p. 224 (another example illustrated) Catalogue Essay Starting with her Untitled Film Stills in the 1970s, through her latest series of Clowns, Cindy Sherman has assumed a dual role: that of artist and of performer. In this latest series, she explores and discovers the masquerade of a multi-faceted character - the clown. Sherman, however, does not merely offer the sad Pierrot, the stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell’Arte pining for love. Pierrot’s naïveté regarding social reality famously invites sympathy and even trust, but Sherman’s clowns go beyond the clueless buffoon. These clowns are not misanthropes aware of life’s injustices, who despite their awareness entertain their audience with beaming grins and rosy cheeks. These clowns function as an exaggeration, a commercial variant of the melancholic jester. The aggressive make-up appears strident and harsh in the bright lights. His gaiety is no longer amusing, but irritating. The subject in Untitled # 426, 2004, is not part of the romantic touring troupe of comedians and actors, but a puppet of happiness, a superficial maker of joy, even a sadistic and brutal perpetrator. Each portrait in this series presents a particular cliché of the century old profession of clowning and entertaining as constructed and reinforced through culture, and finally, acted out by Sherman herself. In this series of clowns, as seen in her early black and white Untitled Film Stills, Sherman carefully manipulates pose, gesture, costume, makeup, lighting, and composition to create portraits of both the real and the imagined. By using digital image processing technology, Sherman is able to manipulate and dictate precisely how the final image should stand. She is able to multiply herself and stage herself as a group of persons, or in the case of the present lot, Untitled # 426, 2004, create a backdrop of vibrant and intense Technicolor. With each series, Sherman repeatedly finds new contemporary forms of representation and consistently advances the topics and subjects which have connected her work through its four decade span. In discussing her latest series in a recent interview, Cindy Sherman explains, “I didn’t want to just do traditional portraits of clowns, but push things further. But there actually are clowns with teeth painted on their mouths. As a guide I started with depictions of clowns that I found in books or on the Internet. The greatest challenge for me was to allow a personality to emerge from behind the clown make-up: a personality that has nothing to do with my own. It was important to me that each of these personalities look different: I wanted in a way to find something making the make-up, something that shimmers through.” (Cindy Sherman 2004 taken from an interview with Isabelle Graw, No Make-Up, from Cindy Sherman Clowns, Munich, 2004, p. 54). As an iconic figure, the clown is considered the maker of uninhibited enjoyment, the merchant of open-minded fun and the architect of happiness. He is the jester and fool who faces one misfortune after another, yet brings joy to his audience as he stumbles and falls, slips and slides, swings and misses. Clowns project an air of happiness and joy that overshadows the injustices of life. Hardships are staged as melancholic gestures, and thus, are infused with lightheartedness, transforming tragedy into enjoyment. Each of the clown personas—from the sad loner to the enigmatic magician—turns all that is right upside down, and all that is serious into jest. While these characters are contradictory by nature, it is the precise contradiction t
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