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CINDY SHERMAN (American, b. 1954) UNTITLED (LICK IT UP) "To Tim - Lick it up! Love, Cindy 8/94" insc

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
CINDY SHERMAN (American, b. 1954) UNTITLED (LICK IT UP)  To Tim - Lick it up! Love, Cindy 8/94  insc
CINDY SHERMAN (American, b. 1954) UNTITLED (LICK IT UP) "To Tim - Lick it up! Love, Cindy 8/94" inscribed in ink on verso editioned, signed and dated "AP Cindy Sherman 1991" in ink on verso copyright label with printing information on verso unique chromogenic color print 3715/16 X 183/8 in. (96.4 x 46.7 cm) photographed in 1991 printed in May 1994 ESTIMATE: $15,000-20,000 PROVENANCE This object was printed as a unique piece by the artist for the current owner This photograph was chosen by the rock band, Babes in Toyland, as the backdrop for their 1993 tour with Lollapalooza. The band had previously selected examples of Sherman's photography for the cover art of their 1992 album, Fontanelle, and its 1993 follow-up, Painkillers. Both of these images belong to Sherman's series of Sex Pictures, made between her earlier historical portraits and later nightmare series. When Babes in Toyland discovered they would need a backdrop image for their 1993 tour, they contacted Sherman for another photograph. The present lot was enlarged to an enormous size and unfolded behind the band when they began their performance. Untitled (Lick It Up), features a grinning clown face emerging from a vagina in the center of the photograph, and is framed by the gentle folds of a dress. This staged photograph of female genitalia clearly references Gustave Courbet's The origins of the World and Marcel Duchamp's Etant Donnes, perhaps underscoring the disturbing nature of these earlier works by way of comical exaggeration. Yet Sherman includes a prosthetic hand that reaches into the picture frame from the upper left. This ambiguous gesture may be read as either defensive or masturbatory. Regardless of one's interpretation, the hand ultimately lends an element of female agency to this image, and rescues this particular subject from a tradition of objectification.