Nicole Eisenman’s Views on Palestine Caused Funding Issues for Chicago Retrospective: Report

A Chicago retrospective for Nicole Eisenman, a celebrated artist who has spoken out in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza, faced funding issues because some collectors would not patronize the show due to her views on Palestine, according to a New York Times profile of the artist. The collectors were not named.

Per that profile, the show was a “financial loss” for the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the institution that mounted the US iteration of Eisenman’s retrospective, which first appeared at London’s Whitechapel Gallery last year.

The New York Times reported that the show was ultimately rescued by “other donors,” including Bob Rennie, who has appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list. But MCA director Madeleine Grynsztejn told the Times that this pivot “did not in any way diminish the show,” whose checklist is largely the same as the versions that appeared at London and Oslo’s Astrup Fearnley Museet.

Eisenman also said in the profile that their position on the war in Gaza had adversely impacted themself and other artists on the left. “We are being judged as artists because of our politics,” Eisenman told the New York Times’s Zachary Small. “If you are too far left or progressive, especially on issues of Palestine, then you are entering a politically dangerous place.”

But as the Times profile presents the artist, they do not maintain much contact with their patrons, anyway. Eisenman told the Times that they have only ever had dinner with “a handful of collectors,” adding, “I don’t want to know them.”