Anne Eisner, American painter is the subject of an exhibition at the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris.

A very personal work

The musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac immerses us in the very personal work of the American artist, Anne Eisner (1911-1967).
In 1946, the New York artist traveled to Africa for the first time. She travels alongside her future husband, Patrick Putnam (1904-1953). This anthropologist by training and in the field established in the early 1930s a hotel establishment, a research station, accommodation and medical dispensary called “Camp Putnam” in Epulu, in the north-east of the Belgian colony of Congo.

An immersion in the equatorial forest

It was there, on the edge of the Ituri rainforest, that Anne Eisner decided to engage with the indigenous populations and in particular the Mbuti Pygmies. She will spend seven years there.
During her stay, she gets to know the equatorial forest of Ituri better and documents the life of its inhabitants, an immersion that she will soon transcribe in her work.
A painter since the 1930s, Anne Eisner is attentive to developments in American abstract expressionism. The discovery of the African continent and his installation at Camp Putnam will have a striking impact on his artistic work. Back in the United States in 1954, the artist continued his engaged pictorial meditation in the Congo, on the verge of abstraction. She is thus inspired by local artistic manifestations, inscribed on beaten bark or on bodies, the analogy between bark and body then becoming obvious.
Along with her artistic production, she tries to contribute to the study of the indigenous populations of Ituri.

Quai Branly Museum

37 Quai Branly
75007 Paris 7th
+33 (0) 1 56 61 70 00
• http://www.quaibranly.fr
Opening days and times
From 04/04 to 03/09/2023 from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed on Mondays. Thursday: 10.30am-10.00pm.
Prices
• Full price: €12, Reduced price: €9.