Untitled (In honor of Mark Morrisroe)
20 x 24 inchesUntitled, 1980/2000
From Rear Screen Projections
C-Print on Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper
paper: 20 x 24 inches
image: 11 x 15 inches
frame: 21 1/2 x 25 1/4 inches
Edition of 75
Signed, numbered and dated in pen on verso "Cindy Sherman 1980/2000"
In archival black wood frame with white mat
Selected Museum Collections
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.
Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge
The Cleveland Museum of Art,Cleveland
Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg
Additional Photos
In archival black wood frame with white mat
Full Sheet
Signature, Date & Edition number verso
In 1980, Cindy Sherman chose to finish the Untitled Film Stills series. The Rear Screen Projections marked Sherman’s movement from black and white to color photography, since 1980, Sherman’s work has utilized color film.
CINDY SHERMAN REAR SCREEN PROJECTIONS
In 1980, Cindy Sherman chose to finish the Untitled Film Stills series. The Rear Screen Projections marked Sherman’s movement from black and white to color photography, since 1980, Sherman’s work has utilized color film.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Untitled, In honor of Mark Morrisroe is an image taken from the Rear Screen Projections series of 1980-1981. Cindy Sherman confessed that one of her main desires in starting this series was that unlike the Film Stills that were shot on location in New York, with this series she could produce exclusively from her studio. Each of the Projections show Sherman dressed up in character, closely cropped and superimposed atop a projected background. These backgrounds are made blurry, thereby removing any specificity. The use of background is both similar and different from that of the Film Stills, the figure is now in an obviously artificial space using technical manipulation of the photographic medium.
For each photograph in the Projections series, Sherman adopts characters different than the ones from the Film Stills. Instead of working within the confines of iconic women in 1950s films, Sherman dons more contemporary attire of the 1970s and early 1980s. Her expressions seem more confident, hopefuland self-assured, gone are the wide eyesand fearful facesand instead the Projections display women in scenes of confidence and liberation.
Untitled, In honor of Mark Morrisroe is a great example of the progression of Cindy Sherman’s portrayal of women within her photographs. By constantly superimposing a cropped image of woman over the blurred background, Sherman removes the necessity for reading the image as plausible; rather, the background is clearly artificial, resulting in an image that is neither "real" nor "imaginary." Whereas the Film Stills were primarily focused on artificial narrative in real locations, the women in Rear Screen Projections appear to not necessarily be bound by their physical surroundings. The images are constructed within the horizontal format, which is also reminiscent of a projection screen for films, in yet another tie to the Untitled Film Stills series that preceded it. In this image, the woman looks at something beyond the camera, but she dons a slight smile, which can potentially be read as coy or contemplative. The usage of clothing and color makes this image feel contemporary, which thereby also makes these women more approachable as subjects.
