Alice Neel: Painted Truths 8 July - Whitechapel Gallery
Alice Neel: Painted Truths 8 July - Whitechapel Gallery Alice Neel: Painted Truths 8 July - Whitechapel Gallery
Alice Neel: Painted TruthsSuccess came late to Alice Neel, 1900–1984,who began to paint in the early 1920s. She onlygained popular and critical acclaim in the 1970s,when feminism exposed Western society’s male,white, heterosexual bias in society and the arts.Neel reinvigorated the traditions of portraiture at a timewhen abstraction was widely regarded as the onlylegitimate practice for painters. Her portraits stand outfor their vivid colour, fluid brushwork and the knowing,unflinching eye with which they are executed. Neelpainted people both lauded and ignored by mainstreamsociety, capturing the hidden truths of individualexistence. Describing herself as a ‘Collector of Souls’,Neel’s portraits have an empathy that is informed by herown personal struggles.Neel lived in New York for sixty-five years at a time ofrapid change, first in Greenwich Village, then SpanishHarlem – both areas of considerable social andeconomic deprivation – before moving to the Upper WestSide in the 1960s. These sixty paintings testify to Neel’sexceptional status within post-War US painting and thecontinuous potential of the painted portrait as a genre.Alice Neel: Painted Truths has been organised by the Museum of Fine Arts,Houston. Generous funding has been provided by The National Endowment forthe Arts and the exhibition is supported by Terra Foundation for American Art.Exhibition curated by Jeremy Lewison and Barry Walker, Curator of Modernand Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The Whitechapel Gallerypresentation is curated by Achim Borchardt-Hume, Chief Curator, withCandy Stobbs, Assistant Curator.Supported by:Media Partner:
Allegory & Essential PortraitNeel’s portraits from the 1920s and early 30s are oftendeeply symbolic. Like many artists of the period –particularly those with left-wing political sympathies– Neel chose allegory as a tool for engaging with issuesof social inequality. She had many friends associatedwith the Communist Party and admired both historicand contemporary works by writers such as Honoré deBalzac and Emile Zola, filmmakers Charlie Chaplin andFritz Lang, playwright Berthold Brecht and artistsincluding Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George Grosz, JoséClemente Orozco and Diego Rivera.Neel used allegory to highlight the plight ofimpoverished New Yorkers during the Depression, aswell as to articulate her own personal grief at the loss ofher daughters. In a work such as T.B. Harlem, 1940, Neelequates the treatment endured by Carlos Negron fortuberculosis – the removal of ribs which she describedas a ‘crucifixion’ – to the suffering of the disenfranchisedimmigrants in Spanish Harlem.Neel’s portraits from the mid 1930s to the mid 1950scome closest to traditional realistic portraiture, withfully worked but nevertheless pared down backgroundsand an intense concentration on the sitter. These worksalso reveal the remarkable milieu in which she moved –from writer Max White, poet Kenneth Fearing andmusician José Negron, to journalist Art Shields andunion organiser Pat Whalen. However, many of her sittersfrom this period remain unidentified, testimony to herbelief that all humanity is worthy of being portrayed.
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<strong>Alice</strong> <strong>Neel</strong>: <strong>Painted</strong> <strong>Truths</strong>Success came late to <strong>Alice</strong> <strong>Neel</strong>, 1900–1984,who began to paint in the early 1920s. She onlygained popular and critical acclaim in the 1970s,when feminism exposed Western society’s male,white, heterosexual bias in society and the arts.<strong>Neel</strong> reinvigorated the traditions of portraiture at a timewhen abstraction was widely regarded as the onlylegitimate practice for painters. Her portraits stand outfor their vivid colour, fluid brushwork and the knowing,unflinching eye with which they are executed. <strong>Neel</strong>painted people both lauded and ignored by mainstreamsociety, capturing the hidden truths of individualexistence. Describing herself as a ‘Collector of Souls’,<strong>Neel</strong>’s portraits have an empathy that is informed by herown personal struggles.<strong>Neel</strong> lived in New York for sixty-five years at a time ofrapid change, first in Greenwich Village, then SpanishHarlem – both areas of considerable social andeconomic deprivation – before moving to the Upper WestSide in the 1960s. These sixty paintings testify to <strong>Neel</strong>’sexceptional status within post-War US painting and thecontinuous potential of the painted portrait as a genre.<strong>Alice</strong> <strong>Neel</strong>: <strong>Painted</strong> <strong>Truths</strong> has been organised by the Museum of Fine Arts,Houston. Generous funding has been provided by The National Endowment forthe Arts and the exhibition is supported by Terra Foundation for American Art.Exhibition curated by Jeremy Lewison and Barry Walker, Curator of Modernand Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The <strong>Whitechapel</strong> <strong>Gallery</strong>presentation is curated by Achim Borchardt-Hume, Chief Curator, withCandy Stobbs, Assistant Curator.Supported by:Media Partner:
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