Best known for the sinister splendor from her colorful oil paintings, American artist Nicole Eisenman might seem an unlikely champion of the more understated art of printmaking. Unpredictable and labor intensive, prints require a mind (and body) as patient as it is inquisitive, as diligent as it is open to surprise. The prints do not spring from the walls of the gallery; they whisper. They require a viewer invested in the deeply intertwined wonders of process and product.
Eisenman’s print work demands – and rewards – such attention; they are layered figuratively and narratively, and rich in graphic detail, droll humor and political implication. Nicole EisenmanPrince, presented at the Print Center New York, presents more than 40 works from the artist’s printmaking experiments over the past 10 years, ranging from small-scale portraits to large-scale canvases of communal rejoicing. As she explores the intricacies of human depravity and everyday pleasures, Eisenman honors the extent to which the two often happily coexist. A longtime LGBTQ+ activist, she portrays an intimacy between characters that rarely conforms to gender binaries; kinship networks have priority over the romantic couple.
In “Sloppy Bar Room Kiss” (2011), two characters lock their lips together as they appear to have passed out on the corner of a table, their limbs tangling tenderly below. “Watermark” (2012) features a cartoonish hand picking up oatmeal in what appears to be a cozy Maine abode, while two young girls read together on a couch in the background. “Thinker” (2012) features a voluptuous nude woman lying on her back, a thought bubble containing a can of Bumble Bee Tuna hovering above her. In an equally ironic vein, ‘Twelve Heads’ (2012) features a brooding bust in its lower third with phrases strewn across its surface – the word ‘joy’ becomes ‘toy’ when the J is flipped; such is the universe of the artist. Himself pun the show medium, Prince reveres the print as an expression of personality and vision equal to any other in Eisenman’s work.
As playful as its content may be, mortality and peril make for understated cameos. (Appropriately, in the engraving, the term “ghost” refers to an image from a previous print bearing on the current page.) In “Tea Party” (2012), a skeleton clutches a scythe that doubles as a an American mast; and in the “Night Smoker” collography, an abstract profile stares at us, taking a puff of a cigarette. In “Contagion,” an aquatint etching from 2012, reprinted in green and red ink in 2022, strangers loom around a smartphone that cryptically reads “TG POV NICE.” The huge “Beer Garden” (2012–17) – a combination of etching, aquatint and drypoint chine collé – depicts, among raucous hoi polloi, two figures scanning a newspaper with the headline “Drones Over Occupy Protest” emblazoned on its last page. It is both in tune with the times in 2012 and recalls the ACT UP demonstrations in which the artist participated in the early 1990s.
If God (and the devil) are in the details, the art of printmaking proves a powerful outlet for exploring Eisenman’s most enduring themes. “It was really liberating,” the artist said in an interview with vogue, of his decision to stop painting and concentrate on prints for a year. “Suddenly there was a whole new set of problems and puzzles to play with.”
Nicole EisenmanPrince continues at Print Center New York (535 West 24th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan) through May 13. The exhibit was curated by Jenn Bratovich and Judy Hecker.
