This post is part of my “famous women artists” series where I turn the spotlight on different women artists. This week we focus on modern painter Alice Neel.
Expressionist Portrait Artist
Alice Neel is known for psychologically disturbing portraits during the twentieth century. Initially a painter in Greenwich Village, she moved to Spanish Harlem to blaze her own trail. Painting portraits while most artists during her time shunned representational figure painting, especially portraits, Neel gained prominence by painting portraits of other artists such as Andy Warhol and well known public figures. She had a solo retrospective of her while she was still alive at the Whitney Museum of Art. When she passed in 1985 she had a “Joan Rivers worthy” memorial service at the Whitney Museum which was attended by luminaries such as Mayor Ed Koch. In addition, poet Allen Ginsberg gave his first public reading of his poem ‘White Shroud’ at her service.
It was more than a profession. It was even a therapy, for there I just told it as it was. It takes a lot of courage in life to tell it how it is. ~Alice Neel
Samples of her artwork
While cruising the internet for pictures of her art to download I was met with glaring warning about “copyrights” and reprodcuing her art without permission. To avoid all that I went onto Amazon to show you some book covers with her art on it. Here are some books about Alice Neel.
There are over 100 titles on Amazon about Alice Neel.
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In this excerpt about her you get to see some really great art as well as listen to her philosophy about paintings and art
Whether I’m painting or not, I have this overweening interest in humanity. Even if I’m not working, I’m still analyzing people.
~Alice Neel
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| wonderful documentary about her life |
Current Exhibitions of Alice Neel’s Paintings Around the World
Whether you are in London or New York you can find Neel’s art in many prominent collections and her portraits are included in the following shows…
- Alice Neel: My Animals and Other Family; Victoria Miro, London; October 14 – December 19, 2014
- Solitary Soul; Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York; September 6 – October 25, 2014
- Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction; National Portrait Gallery; Washington, D.C. April 18, 2014 – January 11, 2015
If you liked this post, be sure to check out:
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Famous Women Artists: Helen Frankenthaler
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Women Artist Spotlight: Roz Chast
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Ten Women Artists Every Young Girl Should know About!
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