{"id":3701,"date":"2012-03-30T12:32:48","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T17:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/?p=3701"},"modified":"2014-12-14T19:48:07","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T00:48:07","slug":"collector-of-souls-alice-neel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/30\/collector-of-souls-alice-neel\/","title":{"rendered":"Collector of Souls: Alice Neel"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nancy and Olivia, 1967, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

Alice Neel<\/a>\u00a0(1900-1984) is always described as an artist that was slow to find recognition. \u00a0It\u2019s true, but I think it\u2019s also true that her brilliance was of a kind that is only achieved through maturity and persistence.\u00a0 Our culture likes to think that a genius is a genius, that they must be incandescent in their emergence.\u00a0 If you pass 30 or 40 and you\u2019re not a star, you should give up, pack it in, and do something useful for a change.\u00a0 And maybe that makes sense if you think art is all about fresh concepts and the iconoclasm of a new generation defying the elders.\u00a0 But what if you\u2019re trying to do something very deep and subtle, and nearly impossible to master?<\/p>\n

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Alice Neel, 1944, photo by Sam Brody<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m not saying Neel\u2019s early work wasn\u2019t strong, and I\u2019m not saying her sex and her devotion to figuration in an era where the big money was on abstraction didn\u2019t delay her acclaim.\u00a0 Her early work shows the \u00a0influence of the Ashcan School<\/a> of socially conscious realism, as well as of surrealism and psychological expressionism of the kind that Munch<\/a> and Ensor<\/a> developed.\u00a0 Her paintings of the 1920\u2019s and 1930\u2019s are dark with lots of black paint, and heavy with romantic angst, symbolism, and working class politics.<\/p>\n

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Degenerate Madonna, 1930, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

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Kenneth Fearing (poet, founder of Partisan Review), 1935, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

Those were the radical art fashions of the era.\u00a0 Neel does them well, but you can see hints that the real essence of her talent lies in her intense focus on the individual human subject.\u00a0 At the time, she was young, and dedicated to the romantic ideal of the rebellious and bohemian artist, which she lived fully, complete with abusive marriages, nervous breakdowns and suicide attempts.<\/p>\n

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Ballet Dancer, 1950, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Last Sickness (Alice's mother), 1953, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

She persuaded a diverse collection of people to sit for her \u2013 her neighbors, her bohemian artist and writer friends, children and old people, naked nudes and dressed-up dandies, the uptight and the laid-back, the pretentious and the na\u00efve.\u00a0 She found nothing more fascinating than to try to capture in paint something of what it was like to be with these people.\u00a0 She said<\/a>, \u201cLike Chekhov, I am a collector of souls.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Two Girls, Spanish Harlem, 1959, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

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Robert Smithson (earthworks artist), 1962, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sherry Speeth (mathematician), 1964, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

Alice Neel painted directly from life, and directly on the canvas, without designs or preliminary studies.\u00a0 She said<\/a>, \u201cI do not pose my sitters. I do not deliberate and then concoct… Before painting, when I talk to the person, they unconsciously assume their most characteristic pose, which in a way involves all their character and social standing \u2013 what the world has done to them and their retaliation.\u201d\u00a0 Doing a painting of someone was for her an interaction with that person.<\/p>\n

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Fuller Brush Man, 1965, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hartley (Alice's son), 1965, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

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Charlotte Willard (art critic & author), 1967, by Alice Neel<\/p><\/div>\n

The old saying is \u201cEvery painter paints himself<\/a>\u201d, and for most portrait painters this is a limitation.\u00a0 It means they project something on the subject, some fantasy or ideal.\u00a0 For Neel, it means she paints how she and her subject encounter each other, in the moment as they look at each other.\u00a0 The directness of the look, and the directness of the act of painting, capture the uncanny aliveness that Neel\u2019s pictures embody.<\/p>\n