The National Portrait Gallery has just unveiled Cindy Sherman’s first UK major retrospective. As one of the most influential artists of her generation and with a career spanning 40 years, her pieces manage to feel both relevant and timeless, from the 1970s up until now.
 
Presenting both rarely exhibited work and previously unseen pieces, Cindy Sherman moves from analogue to digital, from the cinema screen to social media and all pieces have one thing in common: they explore the mercurial and ambiguous relationship between appearance and reality. Using herself as a model, wearing a range of costumes and portraying invented situations, she interrogates the imagery employed by the mass media, popular culture and fine art. Here is what not to miss when visiting the exhibition…

 
The exhibition includes all five of Sherman’s Cover Girl series, displayed together for the first time since 1976. Comprising of five separate works, each consisting of three ‘covers’ of women’s magazines, namely: Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Family Circle, Redbook and Mademoiselle. In each group of three, the first image is an original cover featuring the face of a model; the second shows Sherman whose features have been transformed by make-up to resemble the original model; in the third cover, Sherman retains the impersonation but adopts a ‘goofy face’ which mocks the appearance of the original. This is an early manifestation of her appropriation derived from mass-media, in this case magazines.

 
Sherman lives and works in New York and her studio practice is solitary. She combines costumes and clothes, wigs, prosthetics and various props to feed the growth of her characters and then photographs herself in role. This part of the exhibition gives a glimpse into Sherman’s unique process, using photographs of her work space in which a range of sources are visible.

 
In the Society Portraits, Sherman addressed issues of age and social status. The mature women depicted in these imposing portraits are confronting their advancing years and, as her masquerade in each image suggests, are resorting to cosmetic strategies to sustain an illusion of youthfulness. The characters appear equally obsessed with maintaining an illusion of sophistication, wealth and poise. The women’s haughty demeanour portrays self-absorption but also self-doubt and though penetrating, the portraits nevertheless have a compassionate aspect in confronting issues that affect everyone, including the artist herself.