Peter Schjeldahl reviews Nicole Eisenman: Al-ugh-ories at the New Museum, New York, on view through June 26, 2016.

Schjeldahl writes that "[Eisenman] paints narrative fantasies that look bumptiously jokey at first, but reveal worlds of nuanced thought and feeling. They must be judged in person; in reproduction they lose the masterly touch that is Eisenman’s signature. The MacArthur Foundation cited her for restoring 'to the representation of the human form a cultural significance that had waned during the ascendancy of abstraction in the 20th century.' I’d like it to be true. Eisenman’s resourceful Expressionism hints at the power of narrative painting to re-situate the art world in the world at large."