Van Horn

Nicole Eisenman

08 Nov - 20 Dec 2014

© Nicole Eisenman
Away from here (HITCHHIKER), 2012
etching & aquatint
18 cm x 32 cm/7 x 12,5 in., Ed. 20
Harlan & Weaver, VAN HORN, Düsseldorf 2014
NICOLE EISENMAN
Out of Line
8 November - 20 December 2015

10 years ago VAN HORN started it's exhibition program with a series of shows by Robert Crumb, Rudolf Steiner and Nicole Eisenman. It were both Crumb's as well as Eisenman's first solo-exhibitions in Germany. On the occasion of this anniversary we are delighted to present another solo-exhibition by the acclaimed american artist Nicole Eisenman. The exhibition OUT OF LINE shows works on paper, selected by the artist, enabling for the first time in Germany a comprehensive insight into Eisenman's prints.

In recent years the artist was intensely engaged with traditional printing techniques such as etching, lithography and woodcut, exploring the media characteristics and their historical significance.

The neo-realist images use different stylistic and compositional elements, which draw upon diverse art historical periods. Eisenman refers to classical genres such as portrait, genre and landscape painting. With close view on works from the Renaissance, Baroque and especially Classical Modernism she puts her focus on contemporary issues and discourses. Artists like Pieter Breughel the Elder, Hieronymus Bosch, Picasso, Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckman and Edward Munch a.o. serve as a source of inspiration. Eisenman shares the passion for printmaking with a lot of artists of Classical Modernism. Elements of media culture like comic, pornography, TV and advertising are part of her art and complement her forays into the history of art through trivial, obscene and absurd elements of pop culture.

Eisenman criticizes subtly, touches us and describes everyday life in a sociocritical manner. Her works raise questions about existing social models and deficits of modern life with the help of satire, caricature, irony, black humor and slapstick. With sensitivity and humor Eisenman explores human emotions: she dives into the heights and depths of the psyche, often uses surreal imagery and builds a uniquely complex world in which love, melancholy, nostalgia, spirituality and human abysses combine.

Nicole Eisenman * 1965 in Verdun, France. Recent solo exhibitions include the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA, (2014), Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (2014); Berkeley Art Museum, CA (2013); Leo Koenig Inc., New York, NY (2012). In addition, her work has been included in the in the Whitney Biennial (2012) as well as in numerous group exhibitions. Eisenmans work is in important public collections including, among others, the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany and the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany
 

Tags: R. Crumb, Robert Crumb, Otto Dix, Nicole Eisenman, Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso, A.L. Steiner, Rudolf Steiner