Nicole Eisenman: Schloss Lyfe

31 May 2025 Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg

Presented in conjunction with a new permanent installation of bronze sculptures on its grounds, Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg is pleased to announce a survey by the American artist, Nicole Eisenman. Titled after a drawing made during a visit to Derneburg in 2017, Nicole Eisenman: Schloss Lyfe is drawn entirely from the Hall Collection and features approximately 85 paintings, sculptures and works on paper, including the monumental plaster sculptures from which the bronzes were cast.
INFORMATION

Nicole Eisenman, Inhaling Object Symbol Guy, 2024

Born in 1965 in Verdun, France, and now living in New York, Eisenman works prolifically in painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking and installation, and has exhibited regularly in Germany for over 20 years. Their work responds to a grim navigation of progressive ideals amidst an uncertain American political landscape that threatens to become increasingly authoritarian. Through a technical virtuosity, Eisenman’s unwavering values are deeply personal, social, and autobiographical, with a shrewd sense of humor, and a reverence for language and literature.
Nicole Eisenman photographed with: Inhaling Object Symbol Guy, 2013

Employing an energy harnessed from informal sketching, collaborative performance, site-specific installations and wall murals, Eisenman is credited with redefining both history painting and figurative sculpture. Over a dozen plaster sculptures made during a residency at the Studio Voltaire in London were radical in the economics of their construction, while staking an everyday claim to the monumental. Later examples, including Inhaling Object Symbol Guy (2013), highlight Eisenman’s playful concerns for material, a sensory approach to the body and gestures, as well as an inventive symbolism that embraces fluidity of gender and human relationships.
Nicole Eisenman, Beer Garden with Ulrike and Celeste, 2009

The plaster and bronze sculptures will be exhibited alongside now iconic paintings, including Beer Garden with Ulrike and Celeste (2009), From Success to Obscurity (2004), and It is so (2014). The exhibition also includes key examples of work from the 1990s, including drawings, components from dismantled installations, and satirical responses to American events and culture.
Nicole Eisenman, Untitled, 2011

Rarely exhibited together is the full suite of 45 monotypes, Untitled (2011-12), which debuted at the Whitney Museum's Biennial. The full presentation offers an opportunity to intimately observe the breadth of storytelling and technique that underscores Eisenman's role as one of the most inventive and empathetic artists working today.
Nicole Eisenman, It is so, 2014

Nicole Eisenman is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow (2015) and inductee to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2018). Recent solo exhibitions include 'What Happened' at the Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany (2023), traveling to Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2023) and MCA Chicago, Chicago, IL (2024); 'Heads, Kisses, Battles: Nicole Eisenman and the Moderns' at Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany (2021), traveling to Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2022), Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France (2022), and Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Netherlands (2022); 'Giant Without a Body' at the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway (2021); 'Sturm und Drang' at the Contemporary Austin, Austin, TX (2020); and 'Baden Baden Baden', at the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany (2019)
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