A Kind of Symbolic Language To Those Feelings

The Auction (2025), as installed in STY, Nicole Eisenman’s 2025-26 show at 52 Walker One of the monumental paintings in STY, Nicole Eisenman’s show at 52 Walker last winter was The Auction (2025), in which an artist stood by in a crowded salesroom as a black-robed auctioneer and a sieg heiling bidder faced off over the artist’s work. It was acquired by MoMA. A couple of weeks ago, she told Julia Halperin that The Auction “was partly inspired by collectors’ threats to sell her work at a moment when the art market was being deployed as judge and jury of her actions.” Some dealers and collectors criticized Eisenman and other artists in 2023 for signing an open letter calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, which has since been obliterated in an ongoing genocide, without originally noting Israelis had been killed in the October 7 attacks. Nicole Eisenman, I.D.F. In a Cage, In a Swamp, 2024, Mixed media on paper, 8 1/2 x 11 in, donated by the artist to benefit the Drawing Center As Eisenman…