When i decided to dedicate my blog to one of my favourite painters, Alice Neel, i didnt have to look far to discover her influence in the media World. One of the first journals i found in the library,"Woman's Art Journal", had one of her paintings on the front cover! Was this fate? I just dont know! But inside was 13 pages dedicated to the lovely lady herself! I have found a link to the site (http://www.womansartjournal.org/27-2.php) but unfortunately it doesnt have the articles themselves. So im going to do a bit of summing up so you get the basics...
The first article is written by Mary D. Garrard and is entitled "Alice Neel and Me". Garrard sat for Neel in 1977 after they had met through a mutual friend at a party. Throughout this article she reminises about the times they shared together and their dedication to feminism. She talks admiringly about once of Neel's last pieces, her self portrait: "[Neel] breaks at least three conventions of artistic tradition. One is that the female nude presents women as objects of the male gaze. As if to redeem the Naked Majas of art history, Neel rises upright, trailing pentimenti, defiantly proclaiming the nude's right to come to life and fight back. Next, this naked old woman escapes the critical gaze through irony: she wields a paintbrush, the tool that artists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner strategically positioned at the groin when painting themselves, forging metaphoric links between pen and penis, brush and penis, to reify the machismo of art...But wait! Artistic virility has not been omitted, merely artfully and cleverly transferred to the big toe of the painter's right foot. As the foot arches up, the toe's erection sets the painting's curves into rhyme, pulling lumpen shapes of a sagging, aging body into aesthetic harmonies of pure design.
The third taboo os that old women are not fit subjects for art...Stripping her own dignity away entirely,exposing all, she dissolves us in laughter where Rembrandt would dissolve us in tears."
The second is entitled "Alice Neel's Women from the 1970s" "Backlash to Fast Forward" and is written by Pamela Allara, the same writer who composed a book on Neel entitled "Pictures of People, Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery." The article itself talks of Neels feminist activism and her career, as well as looking in depth at her works. Allara described Neels as "a sort of artist-sociologist who revived and redirected the dying genre of ameliorative portraiture by merging objectivity with subjectivity, realism with expressionism."
The final article is by Mira Schor and titled "Alice Neel as an Abstract Painter" and is another in depth look at Neel's works, but this time as an abstract painter. She is quoted in the article by saying: "I don't do realism. I do a combination of realism and expressionism. It's never just realism. I hate the New Realism. I hate equating a person and a room and a chair. Compostitionally, a room, a chair, a table and a person are all the same for me, but a person is human and psychological."
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Friday, 13 April 2007
Alice Neel; The Works.
I have huge respect for Alice Neel, as a painter, she changed the way that portraits are painted for future generations. She changed the opinions of the Art World, who thought that portraits were an old and used up source, and created a new invigortating subject, one that can be explored through the use of colour and technique. Neel was not interested in creating something the subject would be proud of, something to show their beauty and honour. Instead she would capture a person's essence, something that maybe even the subject wasnt aware of. By using loose brushstrokes and not being afraid of the use of colour she would create a character that was both interesting and fascinating to the eye.
Take this piece, Robert Smithson 1962, oil on canvas, its one of my personal favourites with the lumpy texture of the paint and the grungy colours. Its a care free piece, she isnt worried about making him happy, its about atmosphere and mood. Her brushstrokes show freedom and confidence about herself and her ability. Its this that I, and every other painter, aspire to, to be confident in ourselves and not to worry about mistakes. I espcially like his cheek, that has abviously been scarred by acne, the colours Neel has chosen are perfect to describe this in an abstract way.
Nancy and Olivia, 1967, oli on canvas, is a beautiful portrait of a new Mother and her baby. They both look petrified as they stare out at the viewer, they have been thrown into this together and while the Mother is scared of her new found responsibilities, she guards her child from the World, and the placement of both of their heads together shows her love and devotion.
The paint appears to be much thinner on this portrait, but Neels attention to colour is still apparent, as well as her signiture of outlining in blue paint. I really like her ability to capture such a personal moment between a Mother and Child.
Monday, 9 April 2007
Alice Neel: A brief history.
Born in 1900 on the 28th January in Merion Square, Pennsylvania, Alice Neel attended Darby High School until the age of 18, where she graduated after taking a business course, which taught her typing and stenography. In 1918 till 1921, she took a secretarial job with the Army Air Corps, and it was at this time when her first divulgences in Art took place, when she began evening art classes at the School of Industrial Art, Pennsylvania. On 1st November 1921, Neel enrolled into the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, and in 1923 she won the Francisca Naiade Balano Prize in her portrait class, two years running. During the summer of 1924, Neel attends the Chester Springs summer school of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It is here that she meets Carlos Enriquez, a Cuban Artist.
She and Calos Enriquez continued to be wed and have their first child together, Santillana, who died of diptheria at the age of 1. Their second child, Isabella Lillian Enriquez, was born on November 24th 1928. However soon after, Carlos left Neel, taking their daughter with him, on May 1st 1930. In August of the same year, Neels suffers a nervous breakdown most probably due to the stress of being away from her daughter, and being left by her husband, she wrote "Carlos went away. The nights were horrible at first...I dreamt Isabetta died and we buried her right beside Santillana.". Due to the breakdown, Neel was hospitalized at Orthopedic Hospital, Philadelphia, where she remained until January 1931. Unfortuanately, things only got worse for Neel, as she attempted to take her own life two times, the first at her parents house by turning on the gas oven. She was taken to Wilmington Hospital, Delaware, before being returned to Orthopedic Hospital, where she smashed a glass with the intention of swallowing the shards. Luckily attendants prevent her, and she was sent to the suicidal ward at Philadelphia General Hospital.
In September of the same year, after being discharged from all precautions, she visited Nadya Olyanova and her husband, Egil Hoye in Stockton, New Jersey. It is here that she met Kenneth Doolittle, a sailor and close friend of the couple. Early 1932, the two move in together in Greenwich Village. However their relationship was a turbulent one, which resulted in Doolittle burning more than three hundred of Neel's drawings and watercolours, and slashes over fifty oil paintings in a rage in 1934. Neel moved to a close friends, John Rothschild, whom she had met in 1932 while participating in the First Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit.
In late 1935, Neel met the nightclub singer Jose Santiago, who soon moved into her apartment. Their first child was miscarried at 6 months into Neel's pregnancy in July, 1937. In 1938 the couple moved to the Spanish Harlem, East Halem, which is where Neel chose to paint many portraits of her Spanish neighbours. On 14th September Neel gave birth to their second child, Neel Santiago, which was later changed to Richard Neel,. Despite their new born son, in December of the same year, Jose Santiago left Neel.
Neel stayed on in the Spanish Harlem, and in 1940, she met Sam Brody, a photographer and film maker, who soon moved in, and gave Neel her second son on 3rd September 1941, called Hartley Stockton Neel.
In November 1942 the family moved to a third floor apartment at 21 East 108 Street in Spanishg Harlem, which is where Neel remained for twenty years, and is the recognisable background for a great many of her portraits.
On 3rd May 1946, Neel's father died, aged eighty two. In 1953 her Mother also fell ill due to cancer, and in March moved into the Spanish Halem with her daughter. She died on 1st March 1954 at the age of eighty six.
In 1958 Sam Brody moved out of Neel's apartment, but remained in her life on and off throughout the 60's. Soon after this, Neel began counseling sessions, with Dr. Anthony Sterrett.
In between her social life, Neel continued to exhibit her work, and recieve outstanding reviews from critics. It seems that the only thing she could trust was her painting, her painting would never leave her, and she would never leave her painting. Even when she was a single mother, she would catch time to paint, when the boys were asleep, at school; painting was her ecape route out of life and into an imaginary world where she could depend on something.
In 1980, the same year as her first and only self portrait, Neel had a pacemaker fitted, and on a routine check at Massachusetts General Hospital, Neel was diagnosed with colon cancer, which had spread to her liver. Although she proptly had surgery, it did not rid all the cancer. After months of chemotherapy Neel died on 13th October1984, aged eighty four.
She and Calos Enriquez continued to be wed and have their first child together, Santillana, who died of diptheria at the age of 1. Their second child, Isabella Lillian Enriquez, was born on November 24th 1928. However soon after, Carlos left Neel, taking their daughter with him, on May 1st 1930. In August of the same year, Neels suffers a nervous breakdown most probably due to the stress of being away from her daughter, and being left by her husband, she wrote "Carlos went away. The nights were horrible at first...I dreamt Isabetta died and we buried her right beside Santillana.". Due to the breakdown, Neel was hospitalized at Orthopedic Hospital, Philadelphia, where she remained until January 1931. Unfortuanately, things only got worse for Neel, as she attempted to take her own life two times, the first at her parents house by turning on the gas oven. She was taken to Wilmington Hospital, Delaware, before being returned to Orthopedic Hospital, where she smashed a glass with the intention of swallowing the shards. Luckily attendants prevent her, and she was sent to the suicidal ward at Philadelphia General Hospital.
In September of the same year, after being discharged from all precautions, she visited Nadya Olyanova and her husband, Egil Hoye in Stockton, New Jersey. It is here that she met Kenneth Doolittle, a sailor and close friend of the couple. Early 1932, the two move in together in Greenwich Village. However their relationship was a turbulent one, which resulted in Doolittle burning more than three hundred of Neel's drawings and watercolours, and slashes over fifty oil paintings in a rage in 1934. Neel moved to a close friends, John Rothschild, whom she had met in 1932 while participating in the First Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit.
In late 1935, Neel met the nightclub singer Jose Santiago, who soon moved into her apartment. Their first child was miscarried at 6 months into Neel's pregnancy in July, 1937. In 1938 the couple moved to the Spanish Harlem, East Halem, which is where Neel chose to paint many portraits of her Spanish neighbours. On 14th September Neel gave birth to their second child, Neel Santiago, which was later changed to Richard Neel,. Despite their new born son, in December of the same year, Jose Santiago left Neel.
Neel stayed on in the Spanish Harlem, and in 1940, she met Sam Brody, a photographer and film maker, who soon moved in, and gave Neel her second son on 3rd September 1941, called Hartley Stockton Neel.
In November 1942 the family moved to a third floor apartment at 21 East 108 Street in Spanishg Harlem, which is where Neel remained for twenty years, and is the recognisable background for a great many of her portraits.
On 3rd May 1946, Neel's father died, aged eighty two. In 1953 her Mother also fell ill due to cancer, and in March moved into the Spanish Halem with her daughter. She died on 1st March 1954 at the age of eighty six.
In 1958 Sam Brody moved out of Neel's apartment, but remained in her life on and off throughout the 60's. Soon after this, Neel began counseling sessions, with Dr. Anthony Sterrett.
In between her social life, Neel continued to exhibit her work, and recieve outstanding reviews from critics. It seems that the only thing she could trust was her painting, her painting would never leave her, and she would never leave her painting. Even when she was a single mother, she would catch time to paint, when the boys were asleep, at school; painting was her ecape route out of life and into an imaginary world where she could depend on something.
In 1980, the same year as her first and only self portrait, Neel had a pacemaker fitted, and on a routine check at Massachusetts General Hospital, Neel was diagnosed with colon cancer, which had spread to her liver. Although she proptly had surgery, it did not rid all the cancer. After months of chemotherapy Neel died on 13th October1984, aged eighty four.