Cindy Sherman is the woman with a thousand faces. A master of a subtle self-staging, she is both in front of and behind the camera, photographer and model of her captivating creations at the same time. Meticulously conceived, she always captures the most subtle nuances of expression on her highly malleable face and uses the self-timer to turn them into the actual protagonists of her poetically enraptured creations. In "Untitled # 551", her present and yet strangely remote face is in an odd disbalance with the extravagant East Asian golden-blue robe. The contrast between her splendid attire and the tenuous turban above a naked face makes for a captivating visual tension. It is also the protagonist's calm but steady gaze at the viewer that inevitably casts a spell over us, while a second glance reveals that this person is in an unsettling relationship to her surroundings. The moss-covered riverbed in the background appears to be strangely destroyed, thus Sherman created a compelling tension through calculated dissonance. At the center of this impressive series of works, which includes the present work and featured in exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery in 2012 and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York the same year, are lavishly dressed female figures in vast and barren landscapes. This contrast between foreground and background is the common element of all the works in this series. Despite the backdrop nature, the works are characterized by a distinctive scenic quality, as the protagonist always appears isolated, as if on a theater stage. In her outstanding photographic oeuvre, Sherman explores the most diverse role models and ideals, from the broken adolescent to the suburban housewife to the Renaissance aristocrat, repeatedly questioning the inexhaustible range of social manifestations and psychological spaces that women have claimed for themselves or been assigned by society. Time and again, she impressively deciphers social conventions. In "Untitled # 551", Sherman not only confronts us with our ideal of beauty and femininity, but also with our media-influenced, stereotypical perceptions of foreign countries and cultures. [JS]