Just as in Manet's masked ball, the face in 20th-century art has also been variously disguised, as the artist attempts to come to terms with a new, often alienated, selfawareness. Duchamp as his feminine alter ego Rose Selavy for instance, or Cindy Sherman, and her predecessor Claude Cahun. While the story of modern art can be told in innumerable ways, we know it's a story that's inextricably bound up with the urban experience. With almost 100 featured artists, this exhibition tells one strand of modern art's evolution, and tells it in a powerful and intelligent way. It is, at times, deeply affecting.
