Exhibition of paintings and significant works on paper by Alice Neel on view at David Zwirner

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, March 28, 2024


Exhibition of paintings and significant works on paper by Alice Neel on view at David Zwirner
Installation view, Alice Neel: Freedom, David Zwirner, New York, 2019. Courtesy David Zwirner.



NEW YORK, NY.- David Zwirner is presenting an exhibition of paintings and significant works on paper by Alice Neel (1900–1984), on view at 537 West 20th Street in New York. Spanning six decades of the artist’s career, Alice Neel: Freedom is organized by Ginny Neel of The Estate of Alice Neel. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s portrayal of the nude figure and the ways in which Neel resolutely challenged traditional perceptions of sexuality, motherhood, and beauty.

One of the foremost American figurative painters of the twentieth century, Neel was a humanist—she was fascinated by people. She loved to paint them in all their complexities—to penetrate and reveal their fears and anxieties, their defiance and survival. She also loved to paint the unadorned human figure, and her nude portraits explore the body with frankness while celebrating the individuality of each of her subjects. Neel broke through conventional gender expectations and restrictions in order to paint the way she saw the world, and these paintings exemplify the courage and the freedom with which she approached her work and her life. In their mastery of form, color, and implied social commentary, these works are as relevant today as when they were painted.

The exhibition comprises significant loans drawn from museum and private collections. Among the earliest works on view is Well Baby Clinic (1928–1929). Painted from memory by the artist shortly after having given birth to her second daughter, the work is as much personal as it is political in that it presents an ambivalent and deeply nuanced image of childbirth. Of this painting, Neel would later recall her interest in “the purity of the nurses’ outfits, and the white walls of the hospital, so neat, and then sloppy humanity there, all ragged at the edges.”2

Also included in the show are tender representations of infancy and childhood, such as Andrew (1978), a portrait of Neel’s infant grandson, and Isabetta (1934/1935), which depicts her young daughter at six years of age. Other works in the exhibition, including Symbols (Doll and Apple) (1932; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Margaret Evans Pregnant (1978; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston), and the mother and child portrait Betty Homitzky and Jevin (1968) further complicate and challenge how pregnancy and motherhood could be envisioned and represented.

Among the works on view are depictions of friends and acquaintances, such as Nadya Nude (1933), shown lying on a bed of patterned and draped fabric. The pose is echoed in paintings such as John Perreault (1972; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York), which depicts the art critic and curator unclothed. These works upend and challenge the art-historical trope of the reclining nude with Neel’s singular gaze and approach to the figure. Also included is Joe Gould (1933), which presents the eccentric bohemian with multiple penises, a painting that is at once shocking and affectionate.

As Helen Molesworth notes in a newly commissioned essay published in the accompanying exhibition catalogue, “Some of Neel’s abiding questions were: What is the gaze we have for nakedness? What is nakedness without sex? Is there a gaze that encompasses sexuality but is not necessarily about desire? Can desire exist without objectification? These questions are perhaps more apposite now than ever.… Perhaps this is why these pictures feel so relevant now. They are images of nakedness that are neither pornographic nor pathological, medical, clinical, patronizing, nor demeaning.… These are pictures of what it looks like to be curious about people when they are naked.”3

Alice Neel was born in 1900 in Merion Square, Pennsylvania, and died in 1984 in New York. Although she exhibited sporadically early in her career, her work has been shown widely from the 1960s onwards. In 1971, a comprehensive solo exhibition of Neel’s paintings was held at her alma mater, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, and in 1974, she had her first retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. It was followed by a large-scale presentation of eighty-three paintings in 1975 at the Georgia Museum of Art, The University of Georgia, Athens. In 1978, the Graham Gallery, New York, organized the first retrospective dedicated to the artist’s works on paper, and in 1979, a survey of her paintings was co-hosted by the University of Bridgeport and The Silvermine Guild of Artists in Connecticut.

To celebrate the centenary of the artist’s birth, the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized a solo exhibition of Neel’s work, which debuted in 2000 at the Whitney Museum of American Art before traveling to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among other venues. In 2010, the survey exhibition Alice Neel: Painted Truths was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and traveled to the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and Moderna Museet Malmö, Sweden. In 2016, the Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, presented Alice Neel: Painter of Modern Life, which traveled to the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, and the Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles, France, before concluding at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg. The artist’s work is included in numerous museum collections internationally. David Zwirner has represented The Estate of Alice Neel since 2008, and Alice Neel: Freedom marks the fifth solo exhibition of the artist’s work at the gallery.

1 Alice Neel, quoted in Patricia Hills, Alice Neel (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983), p. 18.

2 Ibid., p. 23.

3 Helen Molesworth, “Looking with and Looking at Alice Neel,” in Alice Neel: Freedom. Exh. cat. (New York: David Zwirner Books, 2019; forthcoming), pp. 16–17.










Today's News

March 10, 2019

Exhibition at the Dayton Art Institute presents 100 extraordinary paintings

Exhibition of paintings and significant works on paper by Alice Neel on view at David Zwirner

First solo exhibition in Russia of Rasheed Araeen opens at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art

Algeria museum vandalised during protests: ministry

Sotheby's strengthens its commitment to luxury in the Middle East

Exhibition explores Lee Mullican's sustained interest in the universe as source material for his creative voice

Kerlin Gallery opens an exhibition of new paintings by Liliane Tomasko

San José Museum of Art presents a new exhibition featuring unseen works by local artist Jay DeFeo

New York's iconic Chrysler Building to sell for $150 mn: report

Sara Baras, the flamenco superstar wearing the pants

Georgia Museum of Art examines love in the Renaissance

Cosmoscow 2019 edition and new appointments to strengthen the fair's programming

Agnes Pelton's first survey in more than 23 years opens at Phoenix Art Museum

David Nolan Gallery opens 'The Eighties', a survey of drawings by an international group of artists

Arts+Leisure announces the gallery's debut exhibition of paintings by Miles Debas

i8 now represents B. Ingrid Olson

Matching pair of samplers, beautifully executed by Ohio children in 1806 and 1808 sells for $10,000

Museum curators receive £200,000 to boost research through Headley Fellowships with Art Fund

On March 17, Japanese prints go up for bid at Turner Auctions + Appraisals

Metro Pictures exhibits Isaac Julien's visionary ten-screen film installation 'Lessons of the Hour'

John Michael Kohler Arts Center awarded accreditation from American Alliance of Museums

Newark Museum's revitalized galleries spotlight American Modern and Contemporary artists

Exhibition at the Bruce Museum showcases masterpieces from the Museum of Cartoon Art




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful