From the Library of Cindy Sherman

It's National Library Week! Here then is Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Still #13 from 1978:

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #13, 1978; photograph; gelatin silver print, 10 in. x 8 in. (25.4 cm x 20.32 cm); Collection SFMOMA, Fractional and promised gift of Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein; © Cindy Sherman

Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/113885##ixzz1olQsjCyj
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

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City Girl

Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills series was created between 1977 and 1980. This example, number 21 in the series which eventually numbered 69, was sold yesterday at Sotheby's New York for almost four times its high estimate. The Untitled Film Stills were printed in original editions of 10, and this one is numbered 1/10. The Museum of Modern Art acquired the entire series of Untitled Film Stills in 1995 for its collection, and this particular sale was helped, no doubt, by MoMA's current retrospective of the artist's staged self-portraits.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #21, No. 1/10, 1978
http://www.sothebys.com/en/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2012/contemporary-art-n08829#/r=/en/ecat.fhtml.N08829.html+r.m=/en/ecat.lot.N08829.html/78/

                 

                  

http://www.sothebys.com/en/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2012/contemporary-art-n08829#/r=/en/ecat.fhtml.N08829.html+r.m=/en/ecat.lot.N08829.html/78/

Note:  Don't miss my previous blog post on Cindy Sherman's retro Doctor and Nurse here.

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Paging Dr. Sherman...

This fascinating case study, "Doctor and Nurse," is a pair of self-portraits by Cindy Sherman. I doubt whether I would deduce that these were photographs of the same subject if I didn't already know; not one of their features looks the same. How she transforms herself like this is a little beyond me. Besides having great photographic skills at her disposal, there's a large element of performance art here as well. It's just that the performance is going on before a camera rather than an audience.

The doctor and nurse are, I think, equally retro. They do not seem to have a lot of technology at their disposal; not even a stethoscope is visible. The doctor, male of course, appears very engaging, almost aggressively so. His personality seems to dominate this diptych and, in my view, he's interested to a great extent in the social aspects of the practice of medicine.

The nurse, female of course, is young and still in possession of very lofty ideals. She became a nurse to do good in this world.

I also get the sense that these two young professionals know very little about the realities of patient care.

Sale 2270 Lot 102

SHERMAN, CINDY (1954- )

"Doctor and Nurse" (diptych). Sepia-toned silver prints, each 9 1/2x7 1/2 inches (24.1x19.1 cm.), and each with Sherman's signature and dates, in pencil, on verso. 1980; printed 1992

Estimate $5,000-7,500

http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2270+++++102+&refno=++656289&saletype=

Note:  I have herein previously published my musings on Disney's attitude toward the sex-role stereotyping of health care practitioners in Paging Dr. Mouse. It's not required reading in any medical school, but you can still make it a part of your syllabus.

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