The grand return of Cindy Sherman

If the major international Contemporary art fairs are anything to go by, Cindy Sherman’s international reputation appears to have gained considerable momentum this autumn. Indeed, last October, several photos by the American artist were exhibited at the Paris FIAC, notably by the prestigious New York gallery, Metro Pictures.

A frequent member of the Top-10 Contemporary photographers at auction at the beginning of the millennium, the artist appears to have recovered her standing after a somewhat barren two-year period… In effect, until last spring, the market seemed tired of Cindy SHERMAN’s artistic role play. At the peak of her glory at the end of the 90s after an impressive ascension (+184% between January 1998 and January 2000), her prices then started to go u^p and down for the next 7 years: meltdown in 2000 … recovery the following year… inexorable downslide until 2006… sharp recovery in 2007 (her annual auction revenue tripled to $8.9m on the back of a speculative bubble and a 7-figure record) … followed by a meltdown to a decade-low in 2009 (her prices contracted 55% in just 2 years). Today, buyers seem to back on her trail and Cindy Sherman’s works are selling at very good prices: her index has risen 90% since the beginning of 2010.

Role play
Cindy Sherman’s work is divided into several major series: her earlier work included Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980) whose cheeky aesthetic appropriated the stills of 1950s black and white films. The tone of her work hardened considerably in the 80s and 90s with her series Fairy Tales, Disasters, Horror and Surrealist Pictures and Masks which explored the ‘grotesque’ and the ‘monstrous’ without losing the ironic distance that characterised her earlier work.
Indeed, Cindy Sherman’s work is very much about distance, the distance an artist takes when he/she adopts hundreds of different roles: behind each character photographed in her enormous portrait gallery, it is always Sherman herself carefully disguised for the shot. This highly theatrical posturing plays with the cultural and social stereotypes of various different eras, ranging from cinematographic codes and attitudes to the use of prostheses that are too visible to pass for real.
After a career spanning 33 years and a dozen or so photographic series, collectors have sufficient hindsight to know exactly what they like in her work: relatively unenthusiastic about her organic or monstrous series, they seem to prefer the “historic” series (Untitled Film Stills and Centerfolds/Horizontals from 1981) and her most cynical pastiches, such as those of Old Master paintings or of recent society women on the decline.

Recovery
In May 2007 for example a “portrait” of Cindy Sherman made up as Bacchus (whose effusion of alcohol is depicted by a greenish tint) doubled its estimated price range when it fetched $320,000 at Christie’s. The previous evening (16 May 2007) the artist scored a 7-figure personal auction record (at the time) for a 1981 work produced in a limited edition of 10 (Untitled No.92) which fetched $1.85m at Christie’s.
The rhythm and the level of her auction results slowed substantially a few months after this summit and her return to the forefront of the art scene dates back to March 2010 with two surprising results at the major New York sales: Her large print Untitled Film Still #63 (1980 – 3 copies) sold at Sotheby’s on 9 March for $60,000 more than its high pre-sale estimate at $180,000. In 2001, the same work fetched $42,000 at Christie’s (18/05/2001). Two days later after the sale of still #63, another still, reference #194, that would have fetched $10,000 in 1994, changed hands for $98,500 at Christie’s, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. All she needed was a strong result for a recent work to confirm the upward trend… and she got it on 14 October last at Christie’s with a result equivalent to €176,000 (£155,000) for a piece that had never previously been offered at auction (Untitled (#412)) created in 2003.
Thereafter the major auction houses felt they could deal in Sherman’s work with confidence and started offering her works again, presenting no less than 5 pieces above the $200,000 line in their November sessions… Phillips de Pury & Company even announced a new personal record for the artist when her Untitled #153, priced at between $2m and $3m (produced in a limited edition of 6 copies) fetched $2.4m on 8 November 2010!

Apart from these peaks, 40% of Cindy Sherman’s work is affordable at less than $6,000 at auctions (photos edited in more than 100 copies essentially) and 5% of her auction transactions take place in France. French fans of Sherman’s work can hope to pick up some of her works at Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Artcurial, Piasa or Christie’s Paris. Sherman is in effect one of the most fashionable signatures in Contemporary photography and one of the rare artists to have influenced both American pop culture (she inspired Madonna in her video clips and photographs) and French pop: a recent song by Philippe Katerine says …Cindy Sherman – Pas Morte! (Not dead!).