Alice Neel

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Alice Neel in her studio (1976)

Alice Neel (born January 28, 1900 in Merion Square, Pennsylvania , † October 13, 1984 in New York ) was an American painter who is assigned to American realism .

life and work

After graduating from school in 1918, Alice Neel learned shorthand and typewriter and passed the public service exam. During her two years as the Army Secretary, she attended evening classes at the School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia. In 1921 she enrolled at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design ). In the first year she paid for school fees from her savings, for the remaining three years she received a state-funded scholarship. In 1926 she finished her studies.

She and her husband, the Cuban painter Carlos Enríquez, moved briefly to Cuba, then to New York. The first daughter together died as a child, the second grew up with Carlos Enríquez 'family in Cuba. After the couple split up, Alice Neel suffered a nervous breakdown and was admitted to a clinic in 1930. From 1932 she lived again in New York City. Her main work was created between 1938 and 1962 in the vicinity of her place of residence in the Spanish Harlem district.

Alice Neel dedicated her main work to portraiture and called her works “pictures of people”. As a self-proclaimed soul collector, Neel endeavored all her life to turn the inside of her models outwards. Her great interest in people gave her the talent to analyze her models. She combined this eager perception with a keen mind, and the result was portraits that are open and insightful, if not always flattering for their subject. Her models were mostly people from her circle of friends and from the cultural scene in Manhattan.

The painter only received recognition late. In the time of Abstract Expressionism, then Minimal Art, and in a still male-dominated art scene, their psychological realism was rejected. Only with feminism in the 1970s was their quality and topicality appreciated. In 1974 she had a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York City.

Neel's works are represented in all major American museums as well as in the Tate Modern in London. In 2007, the film Alice Neel premiered, directed by her youngest grandson Andrew Neel .

Awards

  • 1969: Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters , New York
  • 1971: Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Moore College of Art (formerly: Philadelphia School of Design for Women), Philadelphia
  • 1976: Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
  • 1979: National Women's Caucus for Art Award for Outstanding
  • 1983: Elected member ( NA ) of the National Academy of Design , New York

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • 2017/18: Alice Neel. Painter of Modern Life , Deichtorhallen , Hamburg
  • 2016: Alice Neel : Painter Of Modern Life, Ateneum, Helsinki
  • 2015: Alice Neel. Thomas Ammann Fine Art, Zurich
  • 2010/2011: Alice Neel. Painted Truths : Museum of Fine Arts , Houston , Texas ; Whitechapel Art Gallery , London; Moderna Museet Malmo , Malmo
  • 2008: Collector of Souls , Moderna Museet , Stockholm
  • 2008: Exhibition of Drawings, Philadelphia, Moore College of Art and Design
  • 2007: Alice Neel: Pictures of People , Aurel Scheibler, Berlin
  • 2005: Alice Neel's Women , National Museum of Women in the Arts , Washington, DC
  • 2004: Alice Neel: A Chronicle of New York , Victoria Miro, London
  • 2000: Alice Neel: A Retrospective , Whitney Museum of American Art , New York, touring exhibition Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover ; Philadelphia Museum of Art , Philadelphia; Walker Art Center , Minneapolis ; Denver Art Museum , Denver
  • 1996-98 : Kinships: Alice Neel Looks at the Family , Tacoma Art Museum, traveling exhibition: Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland; Sheehan Gallery, Whitman College, Walla Walla; University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara; Boise, ID, Art Museum, Boise Museum of Art, Northampton; Art (art fair) in Palm Beach
  • 1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, installation of 8 works
  • 1985: Alice Neel Perspectives series, Portland Art Museum, Portland
  • 1974: Alice Neel (Retrospective), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Group exhibitions (selection)

  • 2007: Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution , The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA , Los Angeles
  • 1992: The Tenth Anniversary Exhibition: Adam and Eve , Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
  • 1984: American Art Since 1970 , Whitney Museum of American Art
  • 1983: Art and Culture of the American Labor Movement , Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin
  • 1976: Everson Museum, Syracuse University, Syracuse
  • 1971: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
  • 1968: Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York (traveling exhibition)
  • 1933: Boyer Gallery, Philadelphia

literature

  • Jeremy Lewison, Bice Curiger, Petra Gördüren, Laura Stamps, Annamari Vänskä: Alice Neel. Hatje Cantz, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-7757-4176-7 .

Web links

Commons : Alice Neel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Repealed in the Flow of Time , article by Belinda Grace Gardner , Kunstzeitung, January 2018
  2. ↑ Alice Neel. Retrieved January 15, 2020 (American English).
  3. ^ Members: Alice Neel. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 17, 2019 (with awards notes).
  4. ↑ nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "N" / Neel, Alice NA 1983 ( Memento from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed July 5, 2015)
  5. ↑ Alice Neel. Painter of Modern Life , deichtorhallen.de, accessed on October 13, 2017
  6. ↑ Radek Krolczyk: Alice Neel exhibition in Hamburg: pictures of friends . In: The daily newspaper: taz . October 25, 2017, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed January 15, 2020]).
  7. ↑ http://www.ateneum.fi/nayttelyt/alice-neel/?lang=en
  8. ↑ NZZ, Internat. Edition of August 19, 2015, p. 29: Expressive portrait studies
  9. ↑ FAZ of August 18, 2010, page 29: It belongs in the Olympus of art
personal data
SURNAME Neel, Alice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Merion Square, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1984
Place of death new York