Nicole Eisenman

Sailor with Cig #3

$375,000

2022
Unique Ed. 3/3 + 2 AP
Bronze and acrylic photopolymer
101.6 x 58.4 x 58.4 cm / 40 x 23 x 23 in
*Image features Sailor with Cig #2

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Exemplifying the profoundly original visual language that has come to characterize Nicole Eisenman’s oeuvre, ‘Sailor with Cig #3’ (2022) demonstrates the artist’s fluidity in working across media and scale. Although widely known for her painting practice, the artist’s turn to sculpture represents a logical extension from one compositional space to another.

Eisenman has been increasingly involved with sculpture since her 2012 residency and exhibition at Studio Voltaire in London where she was asked to explore mediums outside her usual painting practice. Eisenman produced several figurative sculptures made of plaster and plywood, a few of which were later shown at the 2013 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh. It was during this time that she began to consider casting in bronze.

‘Sailor with Cig #3’ is the third unique edition of a set of Sailor Heads, utilizing bronze, a now frequent material for Eisenman, and a smoke bubble comprised of 3D-printed photopolymer, a new medium for the artist.

Massive heads, whether in paintings or sculptural form, have been present in Eisenman’s work over the past several decades, as have motifs of winding smoke clouds and cigarettes. The sailor character, however, has only made a few cameos—such as in the painting ‘Going Down River on the USS J-Bone of an Ass’ (2017) and the editioned print ‘Fleet Week’ (2010)—making this sculpture series its first appearance as a colossal bust and in three-dimensional form.

‘I like bringing my body into the work in a really physical, visceral way…. With painting there’s always this instrument between you and what you’re creating…. What makes [sculpture] an emotional experience, more so than painting for me, is the connection to the body…like when you’re sanding what would be the shoulders on a figure…there’s a familiarity from life to this motion and somehow this connection between this kinetic action and feeling is really direct. There’s no distance—your hands are on it, your body is in it.’—Nicole Eiseman [1]

About the artist

Nicole Eisenman lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2018. Her work was included in the 2019 Venice Biennale, 2019 Whitney Biennial, and 2017 Skulptur Projekte Münster in Münster, Germany. Having established herself as a painter, Nicole Eisenman has expanded her practice into the third dimension.

Learn more

1.) Nicole Eisenman, ‘2013 Carnegie International – In Conversation: Nicole Eisenman and Sam Miller.’ Artforum, 2013, https://www.artforum.com/video/nicole-eisenman-speaks-about-her-work-2013-45619.