Opening weekend (28-29 September 2024) at the Fotomuseum Antwerp

is dedicated to Cindy Sherman’s exhibition ‘Anti-Fashion’.

Exhibition curator Rein Deslé insists that the American legend is not a photographer, but a contemporary artist working with photography as a medium. I should add that the artist is a post-modernist, whose method is to ‘mocking ’ over past art history and modernity. Despite the fact that she is the model of all her photos, we notice for ourselves that we have no idea what Sherman looks like in person. Her photos are by no means self-portraits. She tries on different images on herself.

Cindy studied at the University of Buffalo in New York, and today we can’t believe it, but she studied painting, the secondary nature of which was obvious to her in the 1970s. Visits to second hand shops (who among us does not visit them) ended with a series of photos of Sherman’s characters. The artist all her life worked with clichés. And in the years when we admired the covers of fashion magazines, she fought them as a constant source of repressive expectations and ideals of female beauty.

In my opinion, the most interesting series are ‘Catastrophes’ and ‘Sexy Pictures,’ in which Cindy Sherman addresses the ugly aspects of humanity. Horrifying prosthetics, masks, and dolls appear in her fashion photographs. Even when working with haute couture houses, the artist manages to make fun of the fashion giants (but they have the sense of humour to see them as their best advertisements).

Why the exhibition is timed to the year of James Ensor and is the 1st of 4 exhibitions in Antwerp, you will understand immediately – masks, masquerade of life, skeletons coming through human flesh are an integral part of the work of the American artist.

The programme for the two opening days is on the website:
https://fomu.be/openingsweekend-cindy-sherman