Alice Neel

Alice Neel (1900-1984) was one of this century's most powerfully original portraitists. Her psychological vision as a painter of people has been described as both tender and unforgiving. This full-scale examination of her life and work accompanies a traveling retrospective organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art that celebrates the centennial of her birth and is the first major exhibition of her work since 1974.

From deeply personal paintings of her own family and neighbors to arresting portraits of important New York art-world figures like Andy Warhol, Robert Smithson, and Frank O'Hara, the 75 paintings and watercolors presented in this book hover disconcertingly between intimacy and monumentality and have an unforgettable impact. This centennial salute will focus renewed attention on one of the preeminent American artists of the 20th century.

175 illustrations, 100 in full color, 8 1/2 x 12"

ANN TEMKIN is curator of 20th-century art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. SUSAN ROSENBERG is assistant curator of 20th-century art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

RICHARD FLOOD is chief curator at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE Whitney Museum of American Art, New YorkJune 29-Sept. 17, 2000 Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MassachusettsOct. 6-Dec. 31, 2000 Philadelphia Museum of ArtFeb. 18-Apr. 15, 2001 Walker Art Center, MinneapolisJune 9-Sept. 2, 2001

About half of her career, the superior figurative painter Neel (1900-84) found herself working against the tide of abstractionism, producing searing portraitsDimages of souls, largely acquaintances and friends. She specialized in the nude portraitDincluding one that revealed her at the age of 80Dbroadcasting the stark personal traits of each sitter: vulnerability, frank sexuality, open aggression, and the demonic. This exhibit catalog of the proud feminist's work accompanies a centennial show traveling from New York to Andover, MA, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis in the coming year. With 224 illustrations, 86 in color, and essays by curators from various museum venues, this is the most comprehensive and up-to-date view of her work, complementing Pamela Allara's biography, Pictures of People (Univ. Pr. of New England, 1998), and several filmed interviews, including Alice Neel, Painter (1989). Highly recommended for most collections.DMary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson Univ., MD
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The centennial of painter Neel's birth has inspired the first retrospective of her unsettling, psychologically acute portraits in 25 years, a reaffirmation of the sly power of her work, her unusual personality, and her courageously artistic life at a time when women artists were much maligned. As the enlightening essays gathered here attest, her bourgeois background and pleasant, blond good looks belied Neel's determination, penetrating vision, and tribulations. Her marriage to Cuban artist Carlos Enriquez ended in divorce and the loss of her two daughters, one to diphtheria, the other to her husband's relatives. Several years later, a jealous lover destroyed hundreds of her drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings. But Neel persevered, raising two sons on her own in Spanish Harlem, where she labored in near obscurity for two decades, painting portraits of neighbors, family, and acquaintances until finally achieving the serious attention she deserved. In her later years, Neel, always attuned to the outrageous and significant, painted the likes of Andy Warhol, Kate Millett, and Annie Sprinkle. Neel herself is fascinating, and her paintings startle, challenge, and engage. --Donna Seaman Donna Seaman
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