Like Cindy Sherman, Yasumasa Morimura likes to dress up in the styles of art history and the movies, but the ensuing self-portraits have their own unease. Sherman’s photographs signal an ethos more than a particular image; Morimura’s duplicate classic icons. The faultline shift between his face and, say, the Mona Lisa’s is somehow—painful. Then there’s the sexual tension and the transoceanic view of Western culture. . . . Speaking of which, it’s a pity Morimura’s first retrospective, comprising eighty of his art history-based works, won’t travel to America: making our art his mirror, whom does he catch in his reflection? Apr. 25–June 7; travels to National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, June 16–Aug. 2; Marugame Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan, Aug. 29–Oct. 18.
