"This catalogue is published in conjunction with 'Alice Neel: People Come First', on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from March 15 through August 1, 2021; at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao from September 17, 2021, through January 30, 2022; and at the de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, from March 12 through July 10, 2022."--Colophon
Contents:
Director's foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Contributions to the catalogue -- Lenders to the exhibition -- Anarchic humanist / Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey -- Political creatures / Kelly Baum -- Siempre en la calle / Susanna V. Temkin -- "I'll show everybody": an artist-mother at home / Meredith A. Brown -- Painting fruit(s) / Randall Griffey -- Alice Neel's "good abstract qualities" / Julia Bryan-Wilson -- Plates
Summary:
"'For me, people come first,' Alice Neel (1900-1984) declared in 1950. 'I have tried to assert the dignity and eternal importance of the human being.' This ambitious publication surveys Neel's nearly 70-year career through the lens of her radical humanism. Remarkable portraits of victims of the Great Depression, fellow residents of Spanish Harlem, leaders of political organizations, queer artists, visibly pregnant women, and members of New York's global diaspora reveal that Neel viewed humanism as both a political and philosophical ideal. In addition to these paintings of famous and unknown sitters, the more than 100 works highlighted include Neel's emotionally charged cityscapes and still lifes as well as the artist's erotic pastels and watercolors. Essays tackle Neel's portrayal of LGBTQ subjects; her unique aesthetic language, which merged abstraction and figuration; and her commitment to progressive politics, civil rights, feminism, and racial diversity. The authors also explore Neel's highly personal preoccupations with death, illness, and motherhood while reasserting her place in the broader cultural history of the 20th century.'--Provided by publisher
