Scarsdale Native Nicole Eisenman Awarded MacArthur Fellowship

Scarsdale native Nicole Eisenman has been awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, one of 24 artistic “geniuses” to receive the honor.

The 50-year-old painter, who resides in Brooklyn, is “an artist who is expanding the critical and expressive capacity of the Western figurative tradition through works that engage contemporary social issues and phenomena,” according to the MacArthur Foundation.

Eisenman graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1983, writes The Journal News, and her retired parents still live in the village.

“What can we say?” Kay Eisenman, Nicole’s mother and a former Scarsdale Board of Trustee member, told The Journal News. “We’re her parents, we’re very proud of our daughter.”

To be selected a MacArthur Fellow, an artist must meet three criteria, “exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work,’ according to the foundation.

The fellowships are “no strings attached” awards “in support of people, not projects. Each fellowship comes with a stipend of $625,000 to the recipient, paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years.”

Photo: Nicole Eisenman. Photo credit: John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation