An American Artist between Cultures
In this radiant biography, the painter Anne Eisner springs to life as a figure of formidable originality. Leaving behind the art world in which she throve in New York, Eisner moved with her lover and eventual husband the anthropologist Patrick Putnam to his domain in the Ituri Forest in the Congo, where she would spend eight years living in close connection to the local Pygmy people. As she struggled with the complex colonial politics and her husband’s descent into madness, Eisner translated the lives of the forest people into powerful paintings. Only now, in this loving narrative, has Eisner’s scholarly contribution come fully to light. Christie McDonald’s heroic, feminist work restores Eisner as artist and as a key anthropological observer of her time.
Rosanna Warren…
