i-xxii Front matter.qxd - Brandeis Institutional Repository

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The Creation (of a) Myth / 11biting wit, actions and words that indicated an absence of self-censorship, a determinationto disrupt polite society. Neel joins the ranks of those writers andpainters—among them Gertrude Stein, Mabel Dodge Luhan, and RomaineBrooks—who ignored their physical appearance and/or permitted themselvesthe comfort and convenience of male garb. It was not until the 1970s thatNeel’s unfashionable persona was adopted by younger feminist performanceartists. Annie Sprinkle (ƒg. 2), whom Neel painted in 1982, pushed the MaeWest image even further toward outrageous camp, which Neel captured perfectlyin Sprinkle’s blowsy expression, tacky feathered hat, overblown breasts,and pussy ring. Flaunting sexuality was the means for all three women to gaincreative as well as economic autonomy. By refusing sexual subservience, theybecame sufƒciently threatening to be let alone, and perhaps to gain a grudgingrespect. In a culture that restricted women’s options, the strategy worked.Much as Neel’s autobiography has obscured her art, it is essential to it andinextricable from it. Were it not for her efforts to narrate her life, her workmight have remained unknown. She realized this when she was in her ƒfties,and spent the rest of her life insuring that her work would not be lost to history.“When Sleeping Beauty wakes up / she is almost ƒfty years old,” 11 wrote poetMaxine Kumin, brilliantly pinpointing the moment when many women realizethat a passive life is a lost life. To conserve her transgressive art, created atgreat emotional cost, she had to translate it into another medium, whose formwould make clear how „agrantly she had violated the unspoken rules of theappropriate in realist art and in real life. According to the feminist psychologistNancy K. Miller, “To justify an unorthodox life by writing about it is to reinscribethe original violation, to reviolate masculine turf.” 12Neel’s lectures were part of her battle to secure a well-earned piece of arthistorical turf. Having recognized the futility of waiting passively for recognition,Neel admitted to Hills in 1983 that she had had “a block, I still have it,against publicity . . . I reached the conclusion that if I painted a good picture, itwas enough to paint a good picture . . . I didn’t know how to go-get, so I just putit on the shelf.” 13 In her ƒfties, after her children were in college, Neel tookcharge. Although hardly a wall„ower previously, she was now ofƒcially off theshelf. In Writing a Woman’s Life, Carolyn Heilbrun has identiƒed this “awakening”as the key moment in a woman’s artistic career: “[A] woman’s selfhood,the right to her own story, depends upon her ‘ability to act in the public domain.’”14To take one’s life into the public domain, one must write it as narrative.Neel chose the genre of satire, the female equivalent of modernist irony. Yet itis important to remember that Neel “wrote” her long life well after she had begunto paint it. She created her autobiography twice, with the later version di-
12 / The Subjects of the Artistrected toward popular consumption, and the creation of a market and a publicspace for efforts long conƒned to her studio/home. Her talents as a raconteurput her work into the public domain. The art historian’s task is to situate itwithin the matrix of American culture.
Page 4 and 5: Pictures of PeopleAlice Neel’sAme
Page 6: NOTE TO EREADERSAs electronic repro
Page 9 and 10: viii / ContentsPART II: NEEL’S SO
Page 11 and 12: x / Illustrations in the Print Edit
Page 13 and 14: xii / Illustrations in the Print Ed
Page 15 and 16: xiv / Illustrations in the Print Ed
Page 17 and 18: xvi / Acknowledgmentstors Virginia
Page 19 and 20: xviii / Pictures of Peoplepression,
Page 21 and 22: xx / Pictures of Peopleof the bawdy
Page 24: Part IThe Subjects of the Artist
Page 27 and 28: 4 / The Subjects of the Artistexpla
Page 29 and 30: 6 / The Subjects of the Artistclass
Page 31 and 32: 8 / The Subjects of the ArtistThe r
Page 33: 10 / The Subjects of the ArtistBeca
Page 37 and 38: 14 / The Subjects of the ArtistIt i
Page 39 and 40: 16 / The Subjects of the Artistarti
Page 41 and 42: 18 / The Subjects of the Artist“A
Page 43 and 44: 20 / The Subjects of the Artistand
Page 45 and 46: 22 / The Subjects of the Artistvent
Page 47 and 48: 24 / The Subjects of the Artistspee
Page 49 and 50: 26 / The Subjects of the Artistpher
Page 51 and 52: 28 / The Subjects of the Artistzone
Page 53 and 54: 30 / The Subjects of the Artistself
Page 55 and 56: 32 / The Subjects of the Artistnect
Page 57 and 58: 34 / The Subjects of the Artistcial
Page 59 and 60: 36 / The Subjects of the Artistphia
Page 61 and 62: 38 / The Subjects of the ArtistHowe
Page 63 and 64: 40 / The Subjects of the Artistmist
Page 66: Part IINeel’s Social Realist Art:
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74 / Neel’s Social Realist ArtPer
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6El Barrio:Portrait of Spanish Harl
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92 / Neel’s Social Realist Arttha
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98 / Neel’s Social Realist Artcal
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100 / Neel’s Social Realist Artte
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102 / Neel’s Social Realist Artar
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104 / Neel’s Social Realist Artun
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106 / Neel’s Social Realist ArtPu
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108 / Neel’s Social Realist ArtWh
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7A Gallery of Players:Artist-Critic
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A Gallery of Players / 113be lost a
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A Gallery of Players / 115Campbell
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A Gallery of Players / 117on Neel
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A Gallery of Players / 119sidered b
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A Gallery of Players / 121is a disr
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A Gallery of Players / 123Neel’s
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A Gallery of Players / 125“Batman
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8The Women’s Wing:Neel and Femini
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The Women’s Wing / 129Neel’s ƒ
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The Women’s Wing / 131just and bi
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The Women’s Wing / 133lenced the
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The Women’s Wing / 135holding han
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The Women’s Wing / 137historical
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The Women’s Wing / 139“Three Am
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The Women’s Wing / 141There exist
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The Women’s Wing / 143Looking bac
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9Truth Unveiled:The Portrait NudeIn
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Truth Unveiled / 149school, where s
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Truth Unveiled / 151Nadya’s „es
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Truth Unveiled / 153Nadya’s addic
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Truth Unveiled / 155hand, Gold’s
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Truth Unveiled / 157others were doi
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Truth Unveiled / 159are played woul
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in time—two ladies sitting in umb
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Shifting Constellations / 163which
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Shifting Constellations / 165was a
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Shifting Constellations / 167liefs,
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Shifting Constellations / 169origin
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Shifting Constellations / 171ing ch
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Shifting Constellations / 173by the
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Shifting Constellations / 175void b
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NOTESIntroduction. The Portrait Gal
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Notes / 1793. Emile de Antonio and
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Notes / 18143. Gombrich, “The Exp
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Notes / 183that the book is ƒnishe
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Notes / 185into a language of tempe
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Notes / 187only one repeated entry,
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Notes / 18974. J.L., “New Exhibit
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Notes / 191from the 1930s through t
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Notes / 193a man (who loves childre
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Notes / 195designed to jolt the rea
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Notes / 197alist art, permeated by
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Notes / 19929. Morris Dickstein, Ga
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Notes / 201portrait of the boyish W
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Notes / 203world gossip.” David B
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Notes / 205which had refused to par
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Notes / 207Eating and Identity (198
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Notes / 20925. Georges Bataille, Th
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Notes / 21110. William S. Rubin, Da
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BIBLIOGRAPHYI. Archival Sources and
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Sources Focused on Alice Neel / 215
Page 240 and 241:
Sources Focused on Alice Neel / 217
Page 242 and 243:
General Sources: Books / 219Storr,
Page 244 and 245:
General Sources: Books / 221Chodoro
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General Sources: Books / 223——
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General Sources: Books / 225Leja, M
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General Sources: Books / 227Rich, A
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General Sources: Periodicals / 229W
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General Sources: Periodicals / 231M
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PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITSeeva-inkeri: ƒg
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