Book Description

Alice Neel's remarkable drawings are intimate explorations of her personal life: her loves and her family, her friends, people she met in New York and the art world. Spontaneous and dynamic, the works on paper in Black and White provide insight into her environments, exterior and interior. In them she positions universal themes--motherhood, death, longing--within the sphere of her private existence and her social unconscious. While a handful of the drawings are urban cityscapes and others are domestic settings, the majority are portraits. And when Neel, the self-named "Collector of Souls," composed a portrait, she never posed her sitters. Instead, she studied and spoke intimately with her subjects as they unconsciously assumed their most natural attitude, which she believed exhorted all their character and life experience. The images she created, full of distinctly innate gestures, stemmed from her succinct understanding and assembled memory, and coalesced into a unique impression of a person.

I did this at the expense of untold humiliations, but at least after my fashion I told the truth as I perceived it, and, considering the way one is bombarded by reality, did the best and most honest art of which I was capable. --Alice Neel

Essay by Amy Young.

Hardcover, 150 pages, 58 duotones. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

Raw brillance in pictures
Alice Neel's work is so contempory, so female, so raw. She was brilliant and very ahead of her time. She inspires me everday, and this book is marvelous. Full of quotes from her, her history, the best pictures.I so wish I had known her.

Beautiful Images
This is a wonderful edition to any art library. Beautiful color images, interesting narration. ... Read more

Book Description

Alice Neel (1900-1984) was one of this century's most powerfully original portraitists. Her psychological vision as a painter of people has been described as both tender and unforgiving. This full-scale examination of her life and work accompanies a traveling retrospective organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art that celebrates the centennial of her birth and is the first major exhibition of her work since 1974.

From deeply personal paintings of her own family and neighbors to arresting portraits of important New York art-world figures like Andy Warhol, Robert Smithson, and Frank O'Hara, the 75 paintings and watercolors presented in this book hover disconcertingly between intimacy and monumentality and have an unforgettable impact. This centennial salute will focus renewed attention on one of the preeminent American artists of the 20th century.

175 illustrations, 100 in full color, 8 1/2 x 12"

ANN TEMKIN is curator of 20th-century art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. SUSAN ROSENBERG is assistant curator of 20th-century art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

RICHARD FLOOD is chief curator at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE Whitney Museum of American Art, New YorkJune 29-Sept. 17, 2000 Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MassachusettsOct. 6-Dec. 31, 2000 Philadelphia Museum of ArtFeb. 18-Apr. 15, 2001 Walker Art Center, MinneapolisJune 9-Sept. 2, 2001 ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Inspiring
Alice Neel has certainly inspired me to paint again. The book is wonderful and chronicles her personal story, along with paintings corresponding to those periods of her life and essays by those who knew her well. It's also a treat to get the insight of many of her famous sitters, including "Nancy". This book is also a catalogue of her work which accompanies her centennial exhibition touring the country. I can't wait to see her work up close and personal in 2001. This publication has wet my appetite to experience more and more of the artistry of Alic Neel.

This is a beautiful book!
I've examined this edition virtually plate by plate to the previous (1983- Patricia Hills) edition and I must say that I find the selections as well as the quality of the color printing to be far superior in this edition. Perhaps if one found a first edition of the Patricia Hills publication this would not be the case. But I far prefer this edition and can find no reason to criticize it, other than having a vested or political interest.

1983- (Patricia Hills)Alice Neel monograph MUCH better!
This new monograph has been released to coincide with the Whitney's retrospective. Both the long over due retrospective and the new monograph are lacking in quantity and depth needed in doing justice to this amazingly prolific and important artist. Abrams' previous Neel monograph had many more images and excerpts of important interviews with Neel throughout the book (provided by the forsight of Patricia Hills.) The new book, under the Whitney museums' auspice, includes interviews with some of the sitters. While these anecdotes are interesting it doesn't make up for the total superiority of the 1983 monograph (reprinted in 1995.) If you can find a used version of the previous monograph, you would be wise to aquire it. I also recommend Pamela Allara's "Pictures of People, Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery" which puts Neel's work in a cultural context (from the depression through the feminist movement.) ... Read more

Book Description

A vibrant chronicle of the life and work of a prolific painter and bohemian eccentric. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Lacks Color Images
The narration of this book seemed to be very useful and well researched, however, even though a great number of her paintings where present throughout the book, I would have preferred them be in color instead of black and white illustrations. That was most disappointing. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New Criterion, published by Foundation for Cultural Review on September 1, 2000. The length of the article is 4757 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The splendid Chardin.
Author: Karen Wilkin
Publication: New Criterion (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2000
Publisher: Foundation for Cultural Review
Volume: 19Issue: 1Page: 40

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Allara's Masterpiece
With "Exterior Interior : Alice Neel," accomplished art historian Pamela Allara provides the most magnificently wrought, thorough portrait of Neel around. Understated and earnest, it is among the best analysis of any artist I have seen - period. Allara shares her balanced insights, but it sure to place Alice Neel first and foremost. Neel would have liked it that way - she was definitely an individual who held her own. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New Statesman (1996), published by New Statesman, Ltd. on June 21, 2004. The length of the article is 3218 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Sitting for sanity: Richard Cork on how Alice Neel painted her way out of mental breakdown.(Art)
Author: Richard Cork
Publication: New Statesman (1996) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 21, 2004
Publisher: New Statesman, Ltd.
Volume: 133Issue: 4693Page: 41(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Women's Review of Books, published by Women's Review of Books on June 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1710 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Pictures of People: Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery.
Author: Denise Bauer
Publication: The Women's Review of Books (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 1998
Publisher: Women's Review of Books
Volume: v15Issue: n9Page: p25(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more