Cindy Sherman, an iconic figure in art history since the 1980s, already questioned the boundary between authentic self-portraiture and staged self-enactment in her first major series, Untitled Film Stills (1977–1980).

By confronting viewers with the paradox of a strategy based on concealment and refusal, she fundamentally challenged conventional notions of identity and representation.

The exhibition The Cindy Sherman Effect. Identity and Transformation in Contemporary Art examines the perspectives Sherman opened up for subsequent generations of artists through her strategies of unmasking. In her staged portrayals of social images and clichés, Sherman created a critical space in which questions of identity, gender, society and politics could be newly negotiated.