WHAT? Nicole Eisenman: What Happened

WHERE? Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX

WHEN? Now until 14th January 2024 

WHY GO? For the fun of it. Impish, impetuous and totally irreverent, this huge Eisenman retrospective brings together 100 artworks that primarily poke fun at society and the general code of etiquette. 

Seriously quirky, a little bit naughty yet a whole lot of light hearted fun, she observes contemporary life with satirical glee. 

From the early work of this French-American artist, which is packed full of lesbian references, to her more restrained recent figurative paintings, Eisenman makes the Spitting Image satirists look tame.

It’s a whopper of a show, radical with a capital R, and has some jaw dropping moments of dystopian animation spanning her 30-year career as a diverse artist dipping in and out of all genres including printmaking and sculpture.

The exhibition ends on a more subdued note as she becomes infatuated by the subject of heads, and famously quotes, “When you can’t think of what to draw, draw a head.”

Heads up then, this is the exhibition you might not want to visit with your granny, unless she is truly liberated from her Swinging Sixties days!

The exhibition’s title What Happened, could not be more apt.

IN THE KNOW  Eisenman was invited in 2020 to propose an artwork for the famous Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. Her sculptural maquette Jewellery Tree included a tin foil medal inspired by Lord Nelson and though it was not eventually commissioned, it’s on display in the Whitechapel gallery stairwell within the exhibition.