To My Little Sister: For Cindy Sherman

Your Mirror: Portraits from the ICP Collection
Section: Self portraiture
Yasumasa Morimura’s art is never quite what it seems. For his Daughters of Art History series, he restaged famous paintings, drawings, and photographs from the Western canon, using elaborate scenery props, costumes, and makeup. Morimura perfectly captures the mood, from awkward position on a tiled floor to dreamy expression, that appears in Cindy Sherman’s 1981 centerfold series. While Sherman is known for adopting stereotypical female personas in her work, here Morimura has assumed the role of Cindy Sherman herself. Morimura’s portraits of himself as famous women from Western art history and popular culture break down the binaries between male and female as well as East and West.