Cindy Sherman – FOMU, Belgium

Anti-Fashion

Spanning five decades of work divided over multiple floors, the exhibition Anti-Fashion dives deeper into Sherman’s fascination for fashion and the nexus between her independent work and commissions in the fashion industry. Since the 1980s she has worked regularly with leading fashion houses including Comme des Garçons, John Galliano and Balenciaga and fashion magazines such as Vogue, Interview and Harper’s Bazaar. With no interest in glamorous fashion shoots, she creates provocative photos featuring figures that could hardly be called beautiful, thus calling established ideals of beauty into question.

Anti-Fashion was realised by the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in cooperation with Cindy Sherman’s studio in New York and her gallery Hauser & Wirth.

More on Cindy Sherman’s work

In her photographs, Cindy Sherman (b. 1954) looks at identity as a construct, exploring the ways in which women are depicted in mass media. She has served as her own model since the 1970s. In make-up, costumed and disguised, she continually occupies a new identity, taking inspiration from the endless visual clichés on offer in film, television, fashion, magazines, art history and the internet. She exaggerates stereotypes to absurd and even grotesque dimensions to expose rigid conceptions of gender, beauty and ageing. Each time anew, Sherman subjects dominant visual patterns to a critical investigation, always in step with the zeitgeist and continually surprising the viewer with her characters and subjects. With humour and intelligence, she confronts us with reflections of ourselves.

Early Works

Also on view is a presentation of Early Works 1975 – 1980 that sheds light on some of
Sherman’s main motivations and ideas. It includes experimental works from her student years and her iconic series Untitled Film Stills, which led to her international breakthrough in the late 1970s.

Cindy Sherman – Early Works 1975 – 1980 was developed in collaboration with the VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna.

Ensor 2024

FOMU’s Cindy Sherman exhibition is part of ENSOR 2024, a year-long programme marking 75 years since James Ensor’s death. Like Ensor, Sherman expresses her critical take on social conventions through masks and disguises.

A book to accompany the exhibition will also be available (published by Hannibal Books in English and Dutch; hardcover, €59/£55).