You’d think, given her obsessive self-involvement and makeovers, that Cindy Sherman would be more into fashion. But no, she sticks to her artistic roots, while the rest of us label her a muse and icon. On the rare occasion that she enters into a collaboration with the fashion world—Balenciaga, MAC, Marc Jacobs, Comme des Garçons—she’ll usually make a farce of it. 

An upcoming retrospective at MoMA (opening February 26) will hopefully shed light on this and other paradoxical relationships. Bringing together more than 170 self-portraits, the exhibit traces Sherman’s career from the mid-1970s to the present. Key works include her early film series that took aim at the portrayal of women in cinema; her old-master series, in which she poses as aristocrats, clergymen, and milkmaids a la Vermeer; and her more recent society portraits that poke fun at how the wealthy handle aging (hint: not well).