Positioning Alice Neel as a champion of civil rights, this book explores how her paintings convey her humanist politics and capture the humanity, strength, and vulnerability of her subjects One of the most ambitious and thorough collections of Neels work to date.Allison Schaller, Vanity Fair For me, people come first, Alice Neel (19001984) declared in 1950. I have tried to assert the dignity and eternal importance of the human being. This ambitious publication surveys Neels nearly 70-year career through the lens of her radical humanism. Remarkable portraits of victims of the Great Depression, fellow residents of Spanish Harlem, leaders of political organizations, queer artists, visibly pregnant women, and members of New Yorks global diaspora reveal that Neel viewed humanism as both a political and philosophical ideal. In addition to these paintings of famous and unknown sitters, the more than 100 works highlighted include Neels emotionally charged cityscapes and still lifes as well as the artists erotic pastels and watercolors. Essays tackle Neels portrayal of LGBTQ subjects; her unique aesthetic language, which merged abstraction and figuration; and her commitment to progressive politics, civil rights, feminism, and racial diversity. The authors also explore Neels highly personal preoccupations with death, illness, and motherhood while reasserting her place in the broader cultural history of the 20th century.
Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (March 22August 1, 2021) Guggenheim, Bilbao (September 17, 2021January 30, 2022) de Young Museum, San Francisco (March 12July 10, 2022)
