Untitled Film Still #4, 1977. gelatin silver print 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm) Signed, numbered, and dated “Cindy Sherman, 3/3, 1977” lower right. This work is number three from an edition of three.

PROVENANCE Metro Pictures, New York
EXHIBITED New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Cindy Sherman, July 9 – October 4, 1987 (another example exhibited) Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation, May 7 – August 13, 1989 (another example exhibited) Milan, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea di Milano, Cindy Sherman, October 4 – November 4, 1990 (another example exhibited) Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Cindy Sherman: Film Stills, March 15 – June 25, 1995 (another example exhibited) Shiga, Museum of Modern Art, Cindy Sherman, July 6 – August 18, 1996; Muragame, Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, September 8 – October 13, 1996; Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art, October 26 – December 15, 1996 (another example exhibited) Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Cindy Sherman, March 10 – May 19, 1996; Madrid, Palacio de Velázquez, Parque del Retiro Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, July 8 – September 22, 1996; Bilbao, Sala de Exposiciones REKALDE, October 15 – December 1, 1996; Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle, January 19 – March 23, 1997 (another example exhibited) Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cindy Sherman: Retrospective, November 2, 1997 – February 1, 1998; Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, February 28 – May 31, 1998; Prague, Galerie Rudofinum, June 25 – August 23, 1998; London, Barbican Art Gallery, September 10 – December 13, 1998; Bordeaux, CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain, February 6 – April 25, 1999; Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, June 4 – August 29, 1999; Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, October 1, 1999 – January 2, 2000 (another example exhibited) New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Cindy Sherman: Untitled Film Stills, June 26 – September 2, 1997 (another example exhibited) Paris, Jeu de Paume, Cindy Sherman, May 16 – September 3, 2006; Kunsthaus Bregenz, November 25, 2006 – January 14, 2007; Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum of Art, February 9 – May 13, 2007; Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, June 15 – September 10, 2007 (another example exhibited) New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Cindy Sherman, February 26 – June 11, 2012 (another example exhibited)
LITERATURE E. Barents, Cindy Sherman, Munich, 1982, no. 3 (another example illustrated) P. Schjeldahl and L. Phillips, Cindy Sherman, New York, 1987, no. 3 (another example illustrated) M. Meneguzzo, ed., Cindy Sherman, Milan, 1990, p. 19 (another example illustrated) A. C. Danto, Cindy Sherman: Untitled Film Stills, Munich 1990, pl. 3, pp. 20-21 (another example illustrated) R. Krauss, Cindy Sherman 1975-1993, New York, 1993, pp. 2-3 and p. 44 (another example illustrated) P.D. Rosenzweig, Cindy Sherman: Film Stills, Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, 1995 (another example illustrated) Z. Felix and M. Schwander, Cindy Sherman: Photographic Work 1975-1995, London, 1995, pl. 31 (another example illustrated) Cindy Sherman, Shiga, Museum of Modern Art, 1996, p. 58 (another example illustrated) T. Schoon and K. Schampers, Cindy Sherman, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, 1996, pp. 28-29, no. 6 (another example illustrated) A. Cruz, A. Jones and E. Smith, Cindy Sherman: Retrospective, New York, 1997, p. 57, no. 4 (another example illustrated) R. Durand, Cindy Sherman, Paris, Jeu de Paume, 2006, pp. 46 and 241 (another example illustrated) E. Respini, Cindy Sherman, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 2012, pl. 50, p. 109 (another example illustrated)
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ROBERT LEHRMAN
In Untitled Film Still #4, 1977, Sherman presents herself elegantly dressed in a matching skirt and jacket in the fashion of Post World War II America. A pillbox hat sits precariously on her blond tresses, while a rich dark coat hangs over both her shoulders. She leans against what appears to be a doorway within a hotel corridor. She is alone in an empty, dimly lit hallway, which recedes into darkness. Her eyes are shut and face drawn, perhaps in desperation, as she ponders whether to knock on the door. Beyond the mere formal qualities of the work, the viewer is invited to contemplate the narrative of this pivotal moment. Is she waiting for someone to emerge from behind the door, or perhaps invite her in? None of these possibilities are resolved. Sherman, as both the artist and subject, reinvents herself as an anonymous woman: unidentifiable, incognito, and unnamed. Throughout the Film Stills, Sherman changes at will between the tantalizing seductress, the compassionate housewife, and the glamorous idol. Although these personas and characters are fictitious, they are instantly recognizable to the viewer. The strength and power of Sherman’s Film Stills becomes evident when the viewer projects his or her memories, imaginations and desires upon Sherman’s archetypes; through this transcendence, the viewer becomes engulfed in Sherman’s world.