Were-Artist

Year2007
MaterialOil on canvas
Dimensions127 x 154.9 cm
On viewBasement floor
CopyrightBeth Rudin DeWoody © Nicole Eisenman. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer

More about the artwork

“Were-Artist” (2007) offers a slightly different take on the traditional self-portrait: half-beast, half artist, the figure’s hands have seemingly become hairy and claw-like from one moment to the next. Yet the title of the painting not only alludes to the mythological werewolf; here, Nicole Eisenman questions the clichés of female artistic creation and once again challenges the authority of the traditional male artist type. The first element of “werewolf” has usually been identified with the Old English “wer,” meaning “man,” and it is probably no coincidence that the striped shirt reminds us of Picasso and thus of the prototype of the ingenious and virile artist.