Dana Gordon by Alice Neel, 1972 Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American portrait painter. Her paintings are notable for their expressionistic use of line and color, psychological acumen, and emotional intensity. Image File history File linksMetadata Aliceneel1. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Aliceneel1. ...
1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...
January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ...
October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Life and work
Early life Alice Neel was born in the rural town of Colwyn, Pennsylvania. She took the Civil Service 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 Women. 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. Colwyn is a borough located in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. ...
The Byzantine civil service in action. ...
Nickname: Motto: Philadelphia maneto - Let brotherly love continue Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States Commonwealth Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Government - Mayor John F. Street (D) Area - City 369. ...
Moore College of Art and Design an art and design college for women located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...
Cuba Shortly after finishing her studies Neel married a Cuban painter named Carlos Enríquez, the son of wealthy and aristocratic parents. They were wed in 1925 and moved to Havana the following year to live with Enríquez’s family. In Havana, Neel was embraced by the burgeoning Cuban Avant-garde, a set of young writers, artists and musicians. In this environment Neel developed the foundations of her lifelong political consciousness and commitment to equality. Carlos EnrÃquez Gómez (August 3, 1900 - May 2, 1957), was a Cuban painter, illustrator and writer of the Vanguardia movement (the Cuban Avant-garde). ...
Nickname: Position of Havana in Cuba Coordinates: Country Cuba Province Ciudad de La Habana Founded 1515 Government - Mayor Juan Contino Aslán Area - City 721. ...
A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ...
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 City. Just before Santillana’s first birthday, she died of diphtheria. 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. New York, NY redirects here. ...
Immediately following Santillana’s untimely 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 Cuba, taking Isabetta with him. Mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, she suffered a massive nervous breakdown. After a brief period of hospitalization, Neel attempted suicide. She was placed in the suicidal 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 Party, all of whom became subjects for her paintings. Her work glorified subversion and sexuality, depicting whimsical scenes of lovers and nudes. In modern usage, the term communist party is generally used to identify any political party which has adopted communist ideology. ...
At the end of 1933, Neel was hired by the Works Progress Administration (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. WPA Graphic The Works Progress Administration (later Work Projects Administration, abbreviated WPA), was created on May 6, 1935 by Presidential order (Congress funded it annually but did not set it up). ...
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 Harlem. She began painting her neighbors, particularly women and children. José left Neel in 1940. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
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 Gold and his admiration for her social realist work garnered her a show at the Communist-inspired New Playwrights Theatre. Sam Brody (b. ...
Neel even made a film appearance in 1959, after director Robert Frank asked her to appear alongside a young Allen Ginsberg in his classic Beatnik film, Pull My Daisy. The following year, her work was first reproduced in ARTnews Magazine. Robert Franks noted book, The Americans (1958) Robert Frank (born November 9, 1924), born in Zürich, Switzerland, is an important figure in American photography and film. ...
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (IPA: ) (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American Beat poet. ...
Pull My Daisy is a 1958 short film that typifies the Beat Generation. ...
ARTnews is an artist magazine, founded in 1902 and claiming a circulation of more than 200,000. ...
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 Millett for the cover of Time magazine. In 1974, Neel had a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ...
Time magazine, August 31, 1970 Kate Millett (born September 14, 1934) is an American feminist writer and activist. ...
(Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...
Night view of Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art is an art gallery and museum in New York City founded in 1931 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. ...
By the mid-1970s, Neel had gained celebrity and stature as an important American artist. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter 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 Neel," which premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and was directed by her grandson, Andrew Neel. The film was given a New York theatrical release in April of that year. The Slamdance Film Festival takes place each year in Utah at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival, competing with Sundance to provide what its supporters consider a truer representation of independent film-making. ...
See also The Portrait Now was a major international overview of contemporary portraiture held in 1993-4 at the National Portrait Gallery in London. ...
Reference - Hills, Patricia (1995). "Alice Neel", New York. ISBN 0-8109-1358-5
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