Alice Neel is not as well known as Dali, Picasso or Michelangelo but is remembered by those who grew up in the seventies when she was in the height of her popularity. I had never heard of her until my sister gave me a book about her for Christmas. I feel it is important to give artist’s like Alice to be shown some recognition.
She is most known for her portraits of family, friends and the likeness of well known poets. She is also known for the dramatic psychological effect that she expresses in her paintings.
Alice Neel was born on January, 28th,1900 in Merion square Pennsylvania. This was an era of change for America. It was almost the end of the Victorian age witch ended with Queen Victoria’s death on Tuesday, January,22, 1901. The Victorian era was one of extreme modesty and pretty much stifled the rights of women. It even went as far as a women should not enjoy sex. Women of this period were to stand quietly by her husband and was better to be seen not heard.
From the late 1800s thru the 1900s were the inventions of The horseless carriage, the light bulb, the telephone and the air plane.
When she was three years old, her family moved to cowyn. After high school, Alice was hired and was making good wages with a clerical job. But her true love was art. So she began taking classes in art at the Philadelphia school of design for women. Most women of her era and most definitely with the higher classes were expected to get married right after high school bear children and stay at home. But Alice had her heart set on art. She was so dedicated to her art that she chose to go to an all girl school so it would not distract her.
After school she did fall in love and marry a Cuban painter named Carlos Enriquez who grew up in a family that had a lot of money. I n 1925. There had been great change from the beginning of the 20th century . Women were now cutting their hair short with short dresses and boldly colored makeup and since alcohol was banned many people went to illegal bars. Although there is no proof Alice went to one that was not an un common .
A year later Alice and her love got married and moved in to her husbands parents house in Havana Cuba. She was graciously welcomed by the Cuban Avant-Garde witch included musicians, writers and, artist’s. She had become aware of the political atmosphere and her commitment to equality. The same year, in Havana, she gave birth to her first child, a girl named Santillana who died a year later of diphtheria.
Shortly after her first child died, Neel gave birth to her second child named Isabetta in 1928. Neel felt compelled to paint the mothers’ with their children in the maternity ward calling the painting “ Well Baby Clinic”
In 1930, her husband returned to Cuba taking their second born daughter with him. Neel grieving the loss of her husband and her child, had a nervous break down and was sent to a suicide ward were she remained until 1931.
After she left the hospital, she returned home to her parents but after a visit with her friend Nadya Olyanova, She decided to move to New York.
In 1933, the United States had succumbed to the great depression and the dust bowl. This left Millions out of work resorting in many suicides and led millions to eat at soup kitchens often founded by gangsters Such as Scare face Al Capone. The Midwest was even worse. Constantly bombarded by powerful and often violent dust storms. Many people died and many others were forced to leave or starve heading west in the hopes of finding work.
It seemed though that Neel weathered this low period in American history. She often had time to paint local people such as Joe Gould adding three penises on him considered depraved for the period.
America went from the prosperous period called the roaring twenties until every thing stopped on black Friday and led to an overload of everyone trying to sell stocks and this crisis became The great depression.
During this period, it was as if time reversed back to the more modest way of dress and way of living. Neel on the other hand embraced her sexuality often showing nude models and people in the heat of passion in her paintings.
In 1933, she was hired by the works progress administration were she made a modest salary but she was much better off than many who were struggling to keep from starving to death. She surrounded herself with intellectuals artist’s and political leaders in the communist party.
By this time she was given an exhibition by one of the political leaders. She was not a member of the Communist movement but she was sympathetic throughout her life.
In 1939 Neel gave birth a third time to her first son named Richard who was fathered by her lover Jose Santiago who worked as a singer at a night club. Neel then moved to Spanish Harlem. They met in 1935.
They were together only five years. In 1941, she gave birth for a fourth time to her second son named Hartley fathered by Sam Brody a member of the communist party. Neel often drew pictures for the communist parties magazine called Masses & Mainstream.
She continued to paint but only shown at one exhibition during the fifties. 1959,She also appeared in a Beatnik film along side actor Allen Ginsburg called Pull my daisy.
In The 1960s the feminist movement made Neel an icon. In1970, she was commissioned to paint Kate Millet for the cover of Time magazine. During the 1970s, she grew in popularity and in 1979, Jimmy Carter with a national women’s Caucus for art award for great achievement.
She was her most famous the decade before her death in 1984.