In December 1995, the Museum of Modern Art acquired all sixty-nine black-and-white photographs in Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills series insuring that this landmark body of work was preserved in its entirety within a single public collection.

Sherman began making these pictures in 1977, when she was twenty-three. The first six were an experiment: fan-magazine glimpses into the life (or roles) of an imaginary blonde actress, played by Sherman herself. On to something, Sherman tried other characters in more varied roles eventually completing the series in 1980. She stopped, she explained, when she ran out of clichés.

Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art