Nicole Eisenman Says Collectors Threatened to Sell Her Work Over Gaza Stance

Nicole Eisenman says collectors warned her they would sell her work after she signed a 2023 open letter supporting "Palestinian liberation" — and the painter has now channeled that backlash into a canvas the Museum of Modern Art has acquired.

Earlier this year, MoMA in New York acquired The Auction (2024–25), a painting that, like much of Eisenman's oeuvre, presents fanciful figuration: a feverish bidding war overseen by a fruit-headed, black-robed judge. Eisenman's works often read as funny at first glance, with a nuanced narrative interweaving the personal and political usually waiting to be teased out. The Auction resisted that interpretation — until now.

In an interview with the Financial Times, tied to two new shows at London's Royal Academy and Sadie Coles HQ, Eisenman said the painting was partly inspired by behind-the-scenes fallout from her support for Palestine following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel in 2023.

Eisenman, who is Jewish, was among thousands of high-profile artists who signed an open letter published in Artforum that expressed support for "Palestinian liberation" without explicitly acknowledging the Israelis killed or kidnapped during the attack. The letter also appeared in e-flux. Artforum stated that its editors had not commissioned or drafted the letter.

The letter fractured the art world. Powerful art dealers publicly denounced the signatories, and reports surfaced that some collectors contacted artists whose works they owned to convey displeasure at seeing their names on the list. According to the Intercept, artists Peter Doig, Joan Jonas, Katharina Grosse, and Tomás Saraceno were among the original signatories who withdrew their support after pressure from patrons.

"I think a lot of artists are hesitant to grapple with the destruction of Gaza because of the backlash," Eisenman told the FT. "There's been a very nasty taste of it."

Eisenman said collectors warned that they would sell her work, too — and that threat offers one reading of The Auction: the art market doubles as a courtroom, where an artist's success, and with it their livelihood, is decided through moral arbitration. In the painting, the artist, separated from the proceedings by a wooden barrier, does not seem welcome to take the stand.

How the painting ended up in MoMA's permanent collection, Eisenman added, was a guess. MoMA was a frequent target of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in 2024, including a major sit-in protesting board members who had been accused of investing in Israeli arms manufacturers.

"I don't know if Ann [Temkin, MoMA's soon-to-be retired chief curator for painting and sculpture] had presented it that way to the board, if they would've wanted it in their museum," Eisenman said. "I would say not. So I feel like it's a real coup."

With the Royal Academy and Sadie Coles HQ shows now open in London, Eisenman has placed the market's machinery — and her own battle with it — at the center of her most visible season yet, inside institutions that the painting itself quietly puts on trial.