Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #52

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Artist Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954)American, born 1954

CultureAmerican

Titles

Untitled Film Still #52

Date1979

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 6 1/2 × 9 7/16 in. (16.5 × 24 cm)
Sheet: 8 × 9 15/16 in. (20.3 × 25.3 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Karen and Eric Pulaski Philanthropic Fund of the Houston Jewish Community Foundation

Object number2001.206

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

Description

Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills were at the forefront of post-modern photographic practice when she made them in the late 1970s. In the series, which comprises70 photographs, Sherman photographed herself in different settings and utilized costumes and gestures meant to evoke films of the 1950s and 1960s. However, despite the specificity suggested within the pictures and title conventions, the scenes are fabricated, inviting confusion, misrecognition, and open-ended narratives. By employing the conventions of popular imagery void of reference to actual sources, Sherman upended the representational abilities of photography and critiqued its role in perpetuating socially prescribed gender roles.

Provenance[Metro Pictures, New York and Sandroni Rey Gallery, Los Angeles]; purchased by MFAH, 2001.
Exhibition HistoryExhibited: "Contemporary Art and Photography: Spotlight on the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," MFAH, Upper Brown Pavilion, September 30, 2001 -February 3, 2002.

"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Foundation Galleries, February 21 - May 9, 2010.

"Self, Model, and Self as Other," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,13 July – 29 September, 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Signed in pencil, verso, lower center: Cindy Sherman // 9/10 1979
Inscribed in pencil, verso, center: 53 4

Signed in pencil, verso, lower center: Cindy Sherman

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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