Alice Neel
dal 13/2/2002 al 30/3/2002
Segnalato da
13/2/2002
Alice Neel
Robert Miller Gallery, New York
Black and White. 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.
The Robert Miller Gallery is pleased to
announce its tenth exhibition of works
by Alice Neel (1900-1984), which will
open with a reception on February 14,
from 6 to 8 pm.
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. These spontaneous and
dynamic works on paper 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 consciousness.
While a handful of the drawings are
urban cityscapes and others are familiar
domestic settings, the majority are
portraits. When Alice 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. She then created images
from her succinct impression and
assembled memory of each subject.
Consequently, in each Neel drawing,
the subject occupies space in a different
way. The sitter's personality is fully
expressed by distinctly innate
gestures--the set of their bodies, the curl
of their fingers, a twist of a wrist, the
turn of their shoulders, a slight
contortion of the mouth, a curious shy
smile, or the angle of a glance. These
elements along with Neel's signature
style found in an odd moment of
composition, an elongated limb, or
maybe an aptly placed but looming
shadow, coalesce into her unique
impression of a person . . . exactly.
Image: Alice Neel, King, 1954 Pen and ink on paper 11 x 14 inches
A catalogue will accompany the
exhibition.
The Robert Miller Gallery 524 West 26th Street, NY 10001
Gallery hours are Tuesday through
Saturday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. For
further information, please contact the
gallery at 212.366.4774 or e-mail