Alice Neel was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist known for her oil on canvas portraits of friends, family, lovers, poets, artists and strangers. Her paintings are notable for their expressionistic use of line and color, psychological acumen, and emotional intensity.
Early life
Alice Neel was born in Merion Square, Pennsylvania, and moved to the rural town of
Colwyn, PennsylvaniaColwyn is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,453 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Colwyn is located at , where Darby Creek and Cobb's Creek intersect....
, when she was about three months old. She took the
Civil ServiceThe term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
exam and got a high-paying clerical position after high school in order to help support her parents. After three years of work, taking art classes by night in Philadelphia, Neel finally enrolled full-time in the
Philadelphia School of Design for WomenPhiladelphia School of Design for Women is a historic building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-References:...
. Neel often said that she chose to attend an all-girls school so as not to be distracted from her art by the temptations of the opposite sex.
Cuba
Shortly after finishing her studies Neel married a Cuban painter named
Carlos EnríquezCarlos Enríquez Gómez , was a Cuban painter, illustrator and writer of the Vanguardia movement . Along with Víctor Manuel, Amelia Peláez, Fidelio Ponce and Antonio Gattorno, and other masters of this period, he was involved in one of the most fertile moments in Cuban culture...
, the son of wealthy parents. They were wed in 1925 and moved to Havana the following year to live with Enríquez’s family. In
HavanaHavana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Neel was embraced by the burgeoning Cuban
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
, a set of young writers, artists and musicians. In this environment Neel developed the foundations of her life long political consciousness and commitment to equality.
Personal difficulties, themes for art
In 1926 she became pregnant with her first child. Following the birth of her daughter, Santillana, Alice returned to her parents’ home in Colwyn. Carlos followed soon after, and the family moved to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Just before Santillana’s first birthday, she died of
diphtheriaDiphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
. The trauma caused by Santillana’s death infused the content of Neel’s paintings, setting a precedent for the themes of motherhood, loss, and anxiety that permeated her work for the duration of her career.
Immediately following Santillana’s death, Neel became pregnant with her second child, Isabetta. Isabetta’s birth in 1928 inspired the creation of "Well Baby Clinic", a bleak portrait of mothers and babies in a maternity clinic more reminiscent of an insane asylum than a nursery.
In the spring of 1930, Carlos returned to
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, taking Isabetta with him. Mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, Neel suffered a massive nervous breakdown. After a brief period of hospitalization, she attempted suicide. She was placed in the suicide ward of the Philadelphia General Hospital. Deemed stable almost a year later, Neel was released from the sanitorium in 1931 and returned to her parents’ home. Following an extended visit with her close friend and frequent subject, Nadya Olyanova, Neel returned to New York.
Depression era
There Neel painted the local characters, including Joe Gould, whom she famously depicted with multiple penises in 1933. Her world was composed of artists, intellectuals, and political leaders of the
Communist PartyA political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
, all of whom became subjects for her paintings. Her work glorified subversion and sexuality, depicting whimsical scenes of lovers and nudes.
At the end of 1933, Neel was hired by the
Works Progress AdministrationThe Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
(WPA), which afforded her a modest weekly salary. In the 1930s Neel gained a degree of notoriety as an artist, and established a good standing within her circle of downtown intellectuals and Communist Party leaders. While Neel was never an official Communist Party member, her affiliation and sympathy with the ideals of Communism remained constant.
In 1939 Neel gave birth to her first son, Richard, the child of Jose Santiago, a Puerto Rican night-club singer whom Neel met in 1935. Neel moved to
Spanish HarlemEast Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which...
. She began painting her neighbors, particularly women and children. José left Neel in 1940.
Post-war years
Neel's second son, Hartley, was born in 1941 to Neel and her lover, communist intellectual Sam Brody. In this decade, Neel made illustrations for the Communist publication,
Masses & Mainstream, and continued to paint portraits from her uptown home. Between 1940 and 1950, Neel’s art virtually disappeared from galleries, save for one solo show in 1944. In the 1950s, Neel’s friendship with
Mike GoldMichael "Mike" Gold is the pen-name of Jewish American writer Itzok Isaac Granich. A lifelong communist, Gold was a novelist and literary critic, his semi-autobiographical novel Jews Without Money from 1930 was a bestseller.- Biography :Gold was born Itzok Isaac Granich on April 12, 1894 on the...
and his admiration for her social realist work garnered her a show at the Communist-inspired New Playwrights Theatre.
Neel even made a film appearance in 1959, after director
Robert FrankRobert Frank , born in Zürich, Switzerland, is an important figure in American photography and film. His most notable work, the 1958 photobook titled The Americans, was influential, and earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and skeptical outsider's view of American...
asked her to appear alongside a young
Allen GinsbergIrwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
in his classic Beatnik film,
Pull My DaisyPull My Daisy is a short film that typifies the Beat Generation. Directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, Daisy was adapted by Jack Kerouac from the third act of his play, Beat Generation; Kerouac also provided improvised narration...
. The following year, her work was first reproduced in
ARTnewsARTnews is an arts magazine based in New York, founded by James Clarence Hyde in 1902 as Hyde’s Weekly Art News. It is published 11 times a year.ARTnews covers all art, from ancient to Post-modernism...
Magazine.
Increasing fame
Toward the end of the 1960s, interest in Neel’s work intensified. The momentum of the Women’s Movement led to increased attention, and Neel became an icon for Feminists. In 1970 Neel was commissioned to paint Feminist activist
Kate MillettKate Millett is an American lesbian feminist writer and activist. A seminal influence on second-wave feminism, Millet is best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics.-Career:...
for the cover of Time magazine. In 1974, Neel's work was given a retrospective exhibition at the
Whitney Museum of American ArtThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, and posthumously, in the summer of 2000, also at the
WhitneyThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
.
By the mid-1970s, Neel had gained celebrity and stature as an important American artist. In 1979, President
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
presented her with a National Women’s Caucus for Art award for outstanding achievement. Neel’s reputation was at its height at the time of her death in 1984.
Neel's life and works are featured in the documentary "
Alice NeelAlice Neel was one of the great portrait painters of the 20th century. She reinvented the genre of portraiture by expressing the inner landscape of her varied sitters, among them Andy Warhol, Annie Sprinkle, Bella Abzug, and Allen Ginsberg...
," which premiered at the 2007
Slamdance Film FestivalAs a year-round organization, Slamdance serves as a showcase for the discovery of new and emerging talent in the film industry; it is also the only major film festival fully programmed by filmmakers. Slamdance counts among its alumni many notable writers and directors who first gained notice at the...
and was directed by her grandson, Andrew Neel. The film was given a New York theatrical release in April of that year.
Alice Neel was to be the subject of the upcoming retrospective "Alice Neel: Painted Truths" organized by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, and on view March 21-June 15, 2010. The exhibition will travel to Whitechapel Gallery, London and Moderna Museet Malmö, Malmö.
The Estate of Alice Neel is represented by
David ZwirnerDavid Zwirner is a gallerist and art dealer and owner of the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City. In 2010 Zwirner was listed at number four in the ArtReview annual "Power 100" list.-Early Life:...
, New York, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Galerie Aurel Scheibler, Berlin, and is advised by Jeremy Lewison Ltd.
See also
- The Portrait Now
The Portrait Now was a major international overview of contemporary portraiture held in 1993–1994 at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Among many others it included portraits by Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Tony Bevan, Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Peter Edwards, Stephen Finer,...
that exhibited her Self-portrait
- Elizabeth Neel
Elizabeth Neel is an American artist based in New York.-Life and work:Elizabeth Neel received a BA from Brown University in 1997 and an MFA from Columbia University in 2007....
– her granddaughter and an artist in her own right
External links
- Alice Neel Site
- Estate of Alice Neel at David Zwirner
- Selected Press at David Zwirner
- Heroes and wretches – The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, May 29, 2004.
- OFFICIAL MOVIE WEBSITE
- Alice Neel – National Museum of Women in the Arts
- Alice Neel
Alice Neel was one of the great portrait painters of the 20th century. She reinvented the genre of portraiture by expressing the inner landscape of her varied sitters, among them Andy Warhol, Annie Sprinkle, Bella Abzug, and Allen Ginsberg...
from SeeThink ProductionsSeeThink Films is a Brooklyn-based company that produces feature documentary and narrative films, commercials and music videos.SeeThink Films founding members are Andrew Neel, Ethan Palmer, Luke Meyer and Tom Davis.- Films :*New World Order...
- Alice Neel: Painted Truths exhibition at MFA Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
- Alice Neel: Paintings. In association with Jeremy Lewison Limited, 20 May – 26 June 2010 LA Louver gallery, Venice, California