Untitled 153
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''Untitled #153'' is a color photograph made by American visual artist
Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...
in 1985. In 2010, a print was auctioned for $2.7 million, making it one of the most expensive photographs ever sold at that time.


History and description

The picture resulted from an invitation of the magazine '' Vanity Fair'' to create a series of photographs inspired by fairy tales. The photographs would never be published by the magazine but are amongst some of her best and more representative work. They tend to be more dark and grotesque than the sources where it is supposed to have taken inspiration, and aren't directly inspired by any specific fairy tale. The current picture is, like its usual in the artist, a self-portrait, depicting a woman, lying in the ground as a corpse, covered with mud in what appears to be a natural environment. Eva Respini said of the picture: “Even when Sherman is in the photographs, she appears doll-like and artificial, as in ''Untitled #153''. Reminiscent of a crime scene photo, the picture shows a dead woman lying on the ground and covered in dirt, her glassy eyes opened wide, as if shocked by her own violent demise. Unlike a police photograph, however, this larger-than-life glossy picture is full of seductive detail, with rich descriptions of the colors and textures of the gravel background, the woman’s mussed hair, and her waxy face."


Public collections

There are prints of the photograph at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (, MACM) is a contemporary art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Place des festivals in the Quartier des spectacles and is part of the Place des Arts complex. Founded in 1964, it ...
,
The Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...
, Jerusalem, and the Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City.Cindy Sherman, Untitled #153, Sotheby's, 12 May 2015
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See also

*
List of most expensive photographs This is a list of the 30 highest prices paid for photographs (in United States dollar, US dollars unless otherwise stated). All prices include the buyer's premium, which is the auction house fee for handling the work. List Disputed claim # In D ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Untitled 153 Color photographs 1985 works 1985 in art 1980s photographs Photographs by Cindy Sherman Photographs in the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)