From: MoMa - The Museum of Modern Art
Alice Neel's (1900-1984) portraits hinge on trust. A figurative painter throughout the 20th century, she created work known for its deliberate distortion, bold outlines, expressive brushwork, and imaginative use of color.
Neel gained her subjects’ trust by inviting them into her home and telling them stories.
"She lulled you", recounted artist and friend Benny Andrews, whom she painted along with his wife, the photographer Mary Ellen Andrews, in 1972.
Her sitters knew that while her paintings may not always be flattering, she would paint what lay beneath the surface and she would not judge.
"Before painting", Neel explained, "when I talk to the person, they unconsciously assume their most characteristic pose...what the world has done to them and their retaliation".
People would reveal themselves and she would make their struggles visible, regardless of whether they were rich or poor, famous or unknown, family or strangers, queer or straight, Black, White, Hispanic, or Asian.
Born outside of Philadelphia, Neel spent most of her life in New York.
A nonconformist from the start, she was influenced by the urban realism of artists like Robert Henri, the exaggerated forms and psychological tension of German Expressionism, and the leftist political ideals of workers’ rights and a social safety net.
Her subjects included Depression-era Greenwich Village regulars like poet Kenneth Fearing, whose empathy is indicated by his bleeding heart. She painted neighbors in Spanish Harlem like the young Georgie Arce, who teems with bravado and vulnerability, as well as artists, activists, mothers, children, and a series of pregnant women, a subject long ignored in the history of art.
She trusted them, too, enough to temporarily lose herself, saying, "I come under the spell of a person—out of myself into that other".
Painting was her way of connecting and coping with hardship, including the loss of her first two children and the trials of raising two more on her own. Neel trusted the viewer as well.
Starting in the 1960s she often left her backgrounds unfinished, saying, "You don’t have to slavishly put the whole thing down. If you suggest it to the person, the person knows".
Finally, Neel trusted her instincts. Seeking a sense of spontaneity, she typically painted directly onto the canvas, outlining in black or blue oil paint without any preliminary sketches.
Most significantly, she painted the people and the world around her from the 1920s through the 1980s, a time during which figurative painting was devalued and marginalized, when, as Neel put it, "abstractionists pushed all the other pushcarts off the street".
For her it was the only option.
"It was more than a profession", she said.
"It was even a therapy, for there I just told it as it was".
Neel’s dedication to the belief that people are worthy subjects, both as individuals and representatives of the spirit of their age, was finally rewarded in the last decade of her life, when she began to receive widespread recognition. | © MoMa - The Museum of Modern Art
From: Sotheby's
Da: Sotheby's
From: Sotheby's
Alice Neel was a leading American figurative painter, whose career spanned from the 1920s to the 1980s. Her deeply penetrating portraits uniquely depict the internal character and psychology of her subjects, exploring issues of identity, social and racial inequality, gender and trauma.
Neel’s free approach to form and color and her experimental handling of line, amplified her renderings of the internal emotional existence of her subjects.
She often turned to family and friends as models in addition to artists, cabaret singers, students, salesmen, psychologists and an array of anonymous strangers, thus creating a broad, dynamic portrait of New York City in the 20th century.
Neel was born in 1900 in Merlon Square, Pennsylvania, to a working-class family who did not encourage her artistic interests.
She persisted and insisted, enrolling in the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now the Moore College of Art and Design), where she pursued her interest in the Ashcan School of Realism.
Neel and her husband Carlos Enríquez lost their first daughter Santillana just before her first birthday; after the birth of their second child Isabetta, Enríquez returned to his native Cuba with their daughter without Neel’s consent.
The sequence of losses both pushed Neel into severe depression, but allowed for new insights and understanding of trauma and healing, which she accessed in her portraiture at a heightened level.
During the Depression years, Neel secured work through the Works Progress Administration, and her portraits soon filled with the images of the Communist party members with whom she associated.
Often focusing on the female figure, Neel created shrewd, honest portraits that questioned the standards of the female form. She remained experimental and ever-changing throughout her career, evolving her approach to painting even in her last works.
From the late 1960s on, Neel’s works have served as icons of the women’s movement. Five years before Neel’s death, President Carter presented her with a National Women’s Caucus for Art award for outstanding achievement.
The Whitney Museum of American Art organized a retrospective of her work in 1974, and a posthumous one in 2000.
A sprawling survey of her career, showcasing 70 paintings, has circulated at major museums in Europe since 2016 in Helsinki, The Hague, Arles, and Hamburg.
Her work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the National Gallery, Washington, DC; the Tate Modern, London; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and many other major institutions. | Source: © Sotheby's
Alice Neel (28 gennaio 1900-13 ottobre 1984) è stata un'artista visiva Americana, nota per i suoi ritratti che ritraggono amici, familiari, amanti, poeti, artisti ed estranei.
I suoi dipinti hanno un uso espressionistico della linea e del colore, acume psicologico e intensità emotiva.
Il suo lavoro ritrae le donne attraverso uno sguardo femminile, illustrandole come consapevoli dell'oggettivazione degli uomini e degli effetti demoralizzanti dello sguardo maschile.
Il suo lavoro contraddice e sfida le tradizionali e oggettificate rappresentazioni di donne nude dei suoi predecessori maschi.
Ha intrapreso la carriera di pittrice figurativa durante un periodo in cui l'astrazione era favorita e non ha iniziato a ottenere elogi dalla critica per il suo lavoro fino agli anni '60.
Neel è stata definita "uno dei più grandi ritrattisti del 20° secolo" da Barry Walker, curatore di arte moderna e contemporanea al Museum of Fine Arts di Houston, che ha organizzato una retrospettiva del suo lavoro nel 2010. | Fonte: © British Wikipedia
Da: Sotheby's
Alice Neel è stata una delle principali pittrici figurative Americane, la cui carriera è andata dagli anni '20 agli anni '80.
I suoi ritratti profondamente penetranti descrivono in modo univoco il carattere interno e la psicologia dei suoi soggetti, esplorando questioni di identità, disuguaglianza sociale e razziale, genere e trauma.
L'approccio libero di Neel alla forma e al colore e la sua manipolazione sperimentale della linea, hanno amplificato le sue interpretazioni dell'esistenza emotiva interna dei suoi soggetti.
Si è spesso rivolta a familiari ed amici come modelli oltre ad artisti, cantanti di cabaret, studenti, venditori, psicologi ed una serie di sconosciuti anonimi, creando così un ritratto ampio e dinamico della New York City nel 20° secolo.
Neel è nata nel 1900 a Merlon Square, Pennsylvania, da una famiglia operaia che non incoraggiava i suoi interessi artistici. Ha persistito e ha insistito, iscrivendosi alla Philadelphia School of Design for Women (ora Moore College of Art and Design), dove ha perseguito il suo interesse per la Ashcan School of Realism.
Neel e suo marito Carlos Enríquez hanno perso la loro prima figlia Santillana poco prima del suo primo compleanno; dopo la nascita della loro seconda figlia Isabetta, Enríquez tornò nella sua nativa Cuba con la figlia senza il consenso di Neel.
La sequenza di perdite ha spinto Neel in una grave depressione, ma ha consentito nuove intuizioni e comprensione del trauma e della guarigione, a cui ha avuto accesso nella sua ritrattistica a un livello elevato.
Durante gli anni della Depressione, Neel si assicurò un lavoro attraverso la Works Progress Administration e presto i suoi ritratti si riempirono delle immagini dei membri del partito comunista con cui si associava.
Concentrandosi spesso sulla figura femminile, Neel ha creato ritratti scaltri ed onesti che mettevano in discussione gli standard della forma femminile.
È rimasta sperimentale ed in continua evoluzione per tutta la sua carriera, evolvendo il suo approccio alla pittura anche nei suoi ultimi lavori.
Dalla fine degli anni '60 in poi, le opere di Neel sono servite come icone del movimento femminile. Cinque anni prima della morte di Neel, il presidente Carter le ha conferito un premio National Women's Caucus for Art per risultati eccezionali.
Il Whitney Museum of American Art ha organizzato una retrospettiva del suo lavoro nel 1974 ed una postuma nel 2000.
Dal 2016 a Helsinki, L'Aia, Arles, è circolata un'ampia rassegna della sua carriera, in cui sono stati presentati 70 dipinti, nei principali musei d'Europa. ed Amburgo.
Il suo lavoro è incluso nelle collezioni dell'Art Institute of Chicago; il Metropolitan Museum, New York; il Museo di Belle Arti, Boston; ed il Museo delle Belle Arti, Houston; la National Gallery, Washington, DC; la Tate Modern, Londra; il Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; e molte altre importanti istituzioni. | © Sotheby's
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