Untitled: Artist Cindy Sherman’s Record-breaking Film Stills
The work of the celebrated artist, whose photographs are held in major collections in New York, London, and Washington, DC, has made auction history
How much would you pay for a grainy black-and-white photograph? How about $322,523? That’s how much each of the 21 Untitled Film Stills 1977-1980 by Cindy Sherman would have cost at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on November 12, 2014 were they available to buy individually. Of the iconic works, Sherman has said, “I purposely developed the film in hotter chemicals to make it crackle because I wanted it to look kind of bad and grainy.”
Among the “bad and grainy” scenes depicted in the group of black and white photos – which realized $6,773,000, the highest price ever paid at auction for Sherman’s work – were a swimmer coming up for air and a woman in spectacles and a garter belt gazing out from behind a curtain. Of her inspiration for the fictional scenes, Sherman recalled: “I was trying to think of a new way to take pictures and tell a story.”
I purposely developed the film in hotter chemicals to make it crackle because I wanted it to look kind of bad and grainy
Cindy Sherman
She stopped at 69 works when she “ran out of clichés.” The sale, which also featured works by Andy Warhol and Gerhard Richter, achieved a total of $852,887,000 – the highest ever total in auction history. “This was a sale of extraordinary quality and range,” says Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s. “The landmark sale result is a reflection of both growing global enthusiasm and demand in this category.”
