Nicole Eisenman: HEADS, KISSES, BATTLES

Nicole Eisenman’s (b. 1965, based in New York) work is captivating because of its fascination with the human condition, questions about interpersonal interaction and the precise observation of processes of alienation in civilisation. In their drawings, paintings and sculptures, the artist combines elements from pop cultural contexts (political satire, comics) with traditional art historical references to form a new unity.

The exhibition Köpfe, Küsse, Kämpfe (Heads, Kisses, Battles) brings together works from all of Eisenman’s creative periods and focuses on images of society in which, in view of the great upheavals such as globalisation and digitalisation, processes of alienation, isolation, but also new communal lifestyles are central. Against the backdrop of Eisenman’s artistic practice, in which various stylistic and compositional elements of historical painting become visible alongside pop-cultural influences, the exhibition combines the artist’s works with works of classical modernism from the collections of the cooperation museums. Through these selectively introduced historical works, the exhibition, together with Eisenman’s oeuvre, opens up a resonance space spanning a century in which social upheavals are presented in their urgency, but also with hope and confidence.

Nicole Eisenman’s work was exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale in 2019, and in recent years they have had solo exhibitions at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, the Secession in Vienna and The Contemporary Austin, among others. In 2017, they were prominently represented in the exhibition Skulptur Projekte Münster with Sketch for a Fountain. The fountain sculpture was purchased for the city of Münster in 2020.

The exhibition is produced in cooperation with the Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, and the Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague. The exhibition is supported by the Kunststiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen and the Stiftung der Sparkasse Bielefeld.