Nicole Eisenman
dal 2/5/2013 al 13/7/2013
Segnalato da
2/5/2013
Nicole Eisenman
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive BAM/PFA, Berkeley
Matrix 248. Having come of age in the East Village in the 1980s, Eisenman's paintings and drawings reflects myriad sources both cultural and popular, that ranges from punk ephemera to canonical works from the history of art.
MATRIX 248 showcases the work of New York–based artist Nicole Eisenman (b. 1965), who became prominent in the 1990s and has been steadfastly expanding dialogues surrounding painting and drawing ever since. Having come of age in the East Village in the 1980s, Eisenman’s work reflects myriad sources both art historical and popular, culling from what writer and critic Lynne Tillman has referred to as a “vast image bank” that ranges from eighties punk ephemera to canonical works from the history of art. Parisian cafe settings found in late nineteenth-century paintings by Manet and Degas become open-air beer gardens one might find in present-day Berlin or Brooklyn, with the smartphones on the tables locating the scene in time. Intermixing styles associated with American Regionalism and the Italian Renaissance with German Expressionism, Eisenman brings history to bear in her canvases and drawings, yet twists the imagery to infuse these familiar forms with her own incisive social commentary and aesthetic voice.
Gender and suggestions of romantic liaisons remain open questions in most of Eisenman’s compositions. The articulated muscular (female) figure has predominated in her oeuvre. She filters the heroic style of Michelangelo through her feminist and lesbian subject matter, yet in recent years her work has become more abstract and less overtly narrative, encompassing psychological ambiguity and looser painterly forms. Decidedly contemporary, her dark, moody genre scenes remain moored in universal themes of everyday life: politics, romance, the economy, social gatherings, and isolation. This exhibition focuses on a selection of paintings and prints that the artist has made over the last several years that coalesce around the theme of economic and social hardship.
In conjunction with MATRIX 248, BAM/PFA presents Ballet of Heads, a thematic group exhibition drawn from the collection that explores the polymorphous nature of the figure in art history. The selection includes important Eisenman influences such as George Grosz and William Hogarth.
Nicole Eisenman / MATRIX 248 is organized by Apsara DiQuinzio, curator of modern and contemporary art and Phyllis C. Wattis MATRIX Curator. The MATRIX Program is made possible by a generous endowment gift from Phyllis C. Wattis and the continued support of the BAM/PFA Trustees.
In six to eight exhibitions each year, the MATRIX Program for Contemporary Art introduces the Bay Area community to provocative views expressed by international avant-garde artists, creating a local connection to the current global dialogue on contemporary art and demonstrating that the art of this moment is vital, dynamic, and often challenging.
Image: Beer Garden with Ulrike and Celeste, 2009; oil on canvas; 65 x 82 in.; Hall Collection. Photo courtesy Leo Koenig, Inc., New York.
Media Relations Manager: Peter Cavagnaro (510) 642-0365 pcavagnaro@berkeley.edu
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA)
Woo Hon Fai Hall 2625 Durant Ave. #2250 Berkeley, CA 94720-2250
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Gallery Admission Prices:
Adults (18-64) $10
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