Nicole Eisenman

The untitled monotype is from a group of portraits that reference the human condition more generally, rather than a specific sitter. Made of gestural, inky marks, the works allude to base instincts.

There is both humor and pathos in Eisenman’s representations. In one monotype, rivulets of tears obscure a face and pool at the bottom of the sheet. In the other, a cartoonish, fleshy figure—whose own head is perhaps replaced with a breast, or outlined above the breast—collides with an enormous head with crying eyes.