“The minute I sat in front of a canvas I was happy. Because it was a world and I could do what I liked in it.”
Alice Neel
Upon searching for info on Alice Neel, the first piece of info to pop up was this quote from https://www.theartstory.org/artist-neel-alice.htm. I knew that I would really like her from this quote because, I can relate: a blank canvas is an opportunity. This seems to be (from my personal analysis only) her way of approaching painting: an opportunity to express herself on her terms.
Alice Neel was a native of suburban Philadelphia, born in January of 1900. According to her biographical sketch on her website, http://www.aliceneel.com/biography/ she attended first, secretarial school, before art school in Philadelphia. The artist in her developed and received awards for her work, but it seems to me that her style may have been affected by her time in Cuba with her husband. Along her way in life she seemed to have encountered many obstacles from an unsuccessful marriage to mental illness. But still, her painting prevailed.
I am must intrigued with Alice Neel because her witness to the changing art world is vast. At some point in her life, she settled in NYC, and saw movements from abstractionism to conceptualism, given that her death was fairly recent, in 1980. However, even though she was definitely engaged with the events that produced these movements, she held fast to her style, figurative portraiture, which was not at its height during much of these times. The majority of her New York years were lived in Harlem and Spanish Harlem: the vibrant upper east side enclaves that provided her with fodder for creating portraits.
Her Portraits
Because I have spent an inordinately large amount of time in museums and galleries, I have seen countless pictures. I tend to recognize artists’ works by their “look”. Before writing this essay, I was familiar with Alice Neel because of her painting’s “look” but, I did not know much about the artist. Reading up on her background gave my eye a deeper appreciation for this “look”.
What stands out to me are her brush strokes. They are broad, as if she regularly used a wider hog bristled brush with a flat tip. Her colors are bright and present, yet at the same time they are somewhat muted to my eye. I think that her brush strokes remind me of works from the German Expressionists period, which are bold and strong, expressive and direct. Except Alice Neel’s colors are calmer to my eye.
I have also wondered about her choice of subjects. Her portraits in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC (accompanying this essay) are of notable Americans who represent the diversity of contributions that form our national identity. I snapped these images for this essay at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. But when I have seen other portraits, I see a diverse repertoire of people who may not be as notable.
It was from a 2017 NYTimes.com article, https://nyti.ms/2lAYYeq, that I really understood her choice of sitter and maybe a little of her. She painted the people of Harlem. The article quotes her as saying how much she loved Harlem. Her fellow Harlemites were of diverse ethnicities, social backgrounds and life backgrounds. This diversity shows through in her portraits. The article details how Neel gave the same attention to these everyday Harlemites as other portraitists may have given to kings and popes.
I can see this. I can feel this. I think this is why I appreciate the work of Alice Neel.
Would you like to know more about Alice Neel? Check out my sources for this essay and enjoy.
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