Juxtapoz Magazine – “What Happened” Was That Nicole Eisenman Became One of America’s Most Important Contemporary Artists

When Nicole Eisenman was the October 2016 cover story, the artist informed us, “I don’t consider painters as being lifeless or alive. The work is lifeless or alive, relying on whether or not it has one thing to say. It’s not a gender factor. I’m not considering reclaiming artwork historical past for girls or queer-ifying it. It’s merely a spot to go to get concepts, to seek out inspiration, to kind questions.” This felt like an apt quote when wanting on the phenomenal Nicole Eisenman. What Occurred, on view at Museum Brandhorst in Munich.

The exhibition surveys for the primary time the whole spectrum of the artist’s three many years of labor in portray and sculpture, bringing collectively roughly 100 works relationship from 1992 to the current. Related from an artwork historic and social, political and deeply human perspective, it’s an oeuvre that manages in an anarchic strategy to be each an homage to and a critique of its personal topic.

From the gallery: In her large-scale figurative work for the reason that 2000s, Eisenman references her dwelling surroundings, depicting the on a regular basis in methods which might be each humorous and compassionate. They’re typically group portraits, but they inform not solely of unity and connectedness, but additionally of loneliness and alienation inside society. For the reason that mid-2010s, the artist has produced a collection of monumental work by which she references the tense political environment in the US following the 2016 presidential election. Some works criticize these voters who fell for Donald Trump’s populist guarantees. Others function politically engaged communities working collectively to confront a social tradition that’s on a darkish path (“The Darkward Path,” 2018). In recent times, sculptural works have additionally change into extra distinguished in Eisenman’s follow. After initially working with plaster at the start of the 2010s, as of late there isn’t a materials that the artist doesn’t use in her sculptures. Their materiality references queer themes that frequently preoccupy Eisenman, alongside along with her unwavering humanist and universalist stance.