We all know Cindy Sherman is a bit of a chameleon when it comes to her self-portrait photography. But we couldn’t help but notice The Guardian’s review of the new exhibition, which runs until September 15 at the National Portrait Gallery, that its actually a masterclass in makeup.
Sherman changes her looks, her age, features prosthetics and beyond in her photos, so why not look at it through that lens. As Laura Cumming writes: “This show is a masterclass in makeup, quite apart from anything else. You can see some of her methods in an early reverse striptease, as it were, in which Sherman turns herself from spectacled geek all the way through to glamour model – with a single clear Cindy, perhaps, among the sequential stages. And staging is, of course, the point.
For although all these different people seem to have the full force of real beings out there in the world, it is also crucial that we must know that they are neither real, nor quite actresses playing the part, but a single artist inventing an immense succession of selves.”
