Alice Neel

by Patricia Hills

Patricia Hills' exhaustive and well-illustrated book on Alice Neel uses extensive quotes from Neel herself. Neel speaks of her life, her ideas on art, and the world at large. She painted well-known figures in art, literature, music, politics as well as her family and friends -- depicting them clothed and sometimes naked, thus exposing their vulnerabilities. Never compromising, she kept to one to paint people as she saw them. By painting individuals with all their idiosyncrasies, Neel also recorded universal constants - pregnancy, motherhood, death, and mourning. Included in this book are figure paintings from every period, as well as landscapes, still lifes, and interiors. Cloth over boards with a sewn binding; released with dustcover; 208 pp; color illustrations throughout. Biography; List of Exhibitions; Select Bibliography.

Genres: Art, Biography

208 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1983

Reviews

[Alice]

Really learned a lot about Alice Neel and her life from reading this book. The bulk of the book is a telling of her life in her own words, from taped conversations with the author. The book is interspersed with examples of Neel's work throughout. The closing essay by the author is also very interesting and thoughtful. There are a few photographs of Neel at the very end, which I have not found easily elsewhere. Thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book.

[Kerfe]

"For Neel, a painting achieved its true importance when it blended art and history, offering the viewer an engaging sensuous surface and at the same time capturing the essences of people, like herself, who have come to accept contradictions and to be themselves."

The author of Neel's biography, Phoebe Hoban, recommended this book as the best comprehensive accounting of Alice Neel's art. It is excellent, both for its illustrations that cover the entire lifetime and range of Neel's career, and for the artist's running commentary that accompanies the work. Hills gives her own insightful distilled view of Neel's legacy at the end of the book, but to see the works alongside the artist's words, with historical and autobiographical notes inserted when appropriate, adds depth and enlarges both the art and the artist.

Reading both books is a good way to get a more complete picture of this complex woman and her creations and the times in which she lived. Each views the material from a slightly different angle. Taken together, they provide context for the many changes and complications of living and working through the 20th century.

[Ellison]

Share her brief stay in a mental institution the she gets out and paints, Socialist leanings, some stories, bare skin, colorful.