Winking and gesturing A-Okay with a smoking joint, Groundsweller is an iconic test.mes nt to the playful humor, tragicomic figuration and complex negotiation of art historical tropes that locate Nicole Eisenman as one of the most important figurative painters of the twenty-first century. Recalling the geometric vocabulary of Russian Constructivism and Cubism, Groundsweller explores the complexities of the human condition and social issues through simplified shapes and a subdued palette. Painted in 2014, the present work was selected by Eisenman to be included in the Museum of Modern Art's 2014 exhibition The Forever Now. Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, which sought to de Replica Handbags historical tropes to illustrate our contemporary cultural moment. Groundsweller singularly depicts the present millennium, skillfully recontextualizing modernist elements and the western figurative tradition. The portrait epitomizes Eisenman's unique ability to engage contemporary concerns with an incomparable painterly dexterity, a skill set that won them the famous MacArthur' Genius Grant the following year.

In Groundsweller, an androgynous figure exhales perfect circles of smoke, coyly winking at the viewer with a telling smirk, characterizing Eisenman's archetypal non-binary rendering of the figure, which they term 'gender agnosticism.' Eisenman explains, "Work comes out of life. Where else would your work come out of, if not your experience? Being a queer woman is the air that I breathe, and it's inescapable, and it's going to be part of the work. But I would like gender to just disappear from the face of the earth." (Nicole Eisenman in conversation with Grace Dunham in: Deborah Solomon, “Art with a Side of ‘Ugh’,” The New York t.mes s, 8 May 2016, p. 27) Eisenman's work is simultaneously witty and psychologically loaded. Eisenman masterfully abstracts the face, removing any recognizable characteristics and in doing so “creates the possibility that this character could be anyone… This is what helps make the paintings sympathetic no matter what fears or cruelties or mishaps or absurdities they depict." (Nicole Eisenman quoted in: Ian Parker, “Every Nicole Eisenman Picture Tells a Story,” The New Yorker, 1 March 2021 (online)) There is an overriding sense of reflection and tranquility in the present work, a tender moment of exhale that reveals a universally relatable figure through distinct symbols.

Born in 1965 and raised in suburban New York, Eisenman found their niche "somewhere between the art room and the parking lot, where the kids smoked pot." (Ibid., Solomon, p. 27) Eisenman's work is emotionally charged with the contemporary cult of self and the radical individualism that is perhaps the defining psycho-social characteristic of the twenty-first century. Enthralled by and indebted to the great painters of art history, Eisenman is nonetheless acutely attuned to the historically ingrained gender binaries, prejudices, and unconscious biases at stake in the politics of representation. Inspired by the surreal expressionism of Paul Klee and the bright color palette of Fauvism, Eisenman is nevertheless driven by an urge to chronicle modern life. Yet, as a queer person, their practice speaks from a markedly different perspective. Butting against – or queering – the established male canon, Eisenman's paintings at once pay homage to and challenge convention.

The present work captures a moment of reprieve and reflection, a generational groundswell regarding our exploration of gender and the self. The masterful use of color serves to accentuate the perfect harmony of shape and form, highlighting the compositional complexities of the portrait. Gender fluid and racially ambiguous, Eisenman's portrait is open and inclusive; it outlines a narrative for portraiture and figuration in the twenty-first century that complicates Eurocentric and historically gendered constructs. Charming and profoundly evocative, Groundsweller is a stunning exemplar of Nicole Eisenman’s celebrated oeuvre.