Cindy Sherman United States, b. 1954

Cindy Sherman is among the most significant feminist artists of the last fifty years, with her series of film stills from the late 1970s and early 1980s particularly noteworthy for challenging and exploring the female gaze. Many later generations of feminist artists, such as Sophie Thun and Sara Cwynar have taken inspiration from Sherman’s practice. Aside from Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, she is perhaps the most influential feminist artist working today.

The present work, Untitled Film Still #21 (1978), shows a promotional still photograph for a hypothetical movie and is perhaps among the most memorable seventy black-and-white film stills the artist executed between 1977 and 1980. It shows an Alfred Hitchcock-inspired working woman in business attire surrounded by towering edifices and looking determinedly away from the camera. It epitomises the archetype of the independent businesswoman, who, despite facing odds, perseveres in a hostile male-dominated environment. Untitled Film Still #21 is particularly striking as it is among the few works by the artist that, while engaging with the male gaze and female objectification, also affirm feminist ideals of agency and autonomy. Although the woman portrayed is clearly fragile and vulnerable, she still has the drive to pursue her own path by looking away. Other artists from the collection to ponder female objectification through the male gaze include Sara Cwynar, whose practice is particularly concerned with exposing and unravelling the often inconsistent and contradictory ideals guiding women’s behaviour, particularly those shared through the internet.

Sherman’s film stills are fascinating not only for their exploration of the female gaze but also within the context of appropriation. Since the mid-1960s, when Elaine Sturtevant chose to copy a flower painting by Andy Warhol, appropriation has been a significant theme in the art historical Western canon. The question underlying the use of appropriation has typically been: how does a copy affect the original artwork’s ‘aura’ and what is the value of the 'copy'? Untitled Film Still #21 is a copy of a movie advertisement and thus ponders what happens when something suitable for the advertisement context is placed within the critical discourse of the art world. While Untitled Film Still #21 may have been accepted as a film advertisement on a billboard, the present work’s status as artwork critically exposes the gender norms and clichés governing the image.