Go See – New York: Alice Neel 'Selected Works' At David Zwirner and 'Nudes of the 1930s' at Zwirner & Wirth through June 20, 2009
June 3rd, 2009
Alice Neel’s ‘Hartley’ via David Zwirner
Running concurrently at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea and Zwirner & Wirth on the Upper East Side are two shows surveying the work of painter Alice Neel. Known best as a portraitist during a time when figuration fell into disdain and obsolescence, Neel is considered one of the twentieth century’s most important American painters. While Neel gained critical acclaim by the end of her life (she died in 1984), recent years have seen increased interest in Neel’s work as contemporary figurative painters such as Lucien Freud and Elizabeth Peyton have attracted both record prices and museum retrospectives. MZwirner & Wirth’s ‘Nudes of the 1930s’ covers the beginning of Neel’s career with sketches, watercolors, and oil paintings of desexualized nudes, including many of women with imperfect bodies. ‘Selected Works’ at David Zwirner presents a wider, more mature range of work.
The Estate of Alice Neel
David Zwirner
Zwirner & Wirth
Decades of Painter Alice Neel in a Single Sweep [New YorkMagazine]
Art in Review [NY Times]
Overview: Alice Neel: Selected Works [Artinfo]
Alice Neel’s ‘Rhoda Myers with Blue Hat’ via Zwirner & Wirth
For her subjects, Neel often chose family, friends, and figures around her. The portraits are rarely flattering, presenting a complex, psychological picture rife with imperfection. Painting subjects across a spectrum of gender, race, age, and lifestyle, Neel was a bohemian figure that gave voice to many of those marginalized within art and society.
Alice Neel’s ‘Annie Sprinkle’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Ballet Dancer’ via David Zwirner
While Neel was also an accomplished landscape and still life painter, many of her strongest portraits pop out of abstract or incomplete backgrounds. Her portrait of burlesque artist Annie Sprinkle is set on a white field with only small swatches of color outlining parts of the body so that Sprinkle’s bare breasts bulge out even more from her leather dominatrix getup. In her portrait of Jerry Sokol, furniture and even Sokol’s jacket are left unfinished, focusing attention to the face.
Alice Neel’s ‘Alienation’ via Zwirner & Wirth
Alice Neel’s ‘Cindy’ via David Zwirner
A documentary about Neel’s life made in 2007 by her grandson is also shown in a side gallery at David Zwirner. ‘Selected Works’ runs May 14-June 20 at David Zwirner in Chelsea. ‘Nudes of the 1930s’ runs May 6-June 20 at Zwirner & Wirth on the Upper East Side.
Alice Neel’s ‘Untitled (Alice Neel and John Rothschild in the Bathroom)’ via Zwirner & Wirth
Alice Neel’s ‘Dana Gordon’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Florence Lasser’ via Zwirner & Wirth
Alice Neel’s ‘George Arce’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Jerry Sokol’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Katherine Hogle’ via Zwirner & Wirth
Alice Neel’s ‘Mrs. Paul Gardner and Sam’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Rita and Hubert’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Katherine Nude’ via Zwirner & Wirth
Alice Neel’s ‘Ron Kajiwara’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Nadya and Nona’ via Zwirner & Wirth
Alice Neel’s ‘Ruth Nude’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Sam and Hartley’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Nude’ via Zwirner & Wirth
Alice Neel’s ‘Sam, Snow (how like the winter)’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Rhoda Myers Nude’ via Zwirner & Wirth
Alice Neel’s ‘The Druid’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘The Family (Algis, Julie and Bailey)’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Untitled (Alice and José)’ via Zwirner & Wirth
Alice Neel’s ‘Young Woman’ via David Zwirner
Alice Neel’s ‘Winifred Mesmer’ via Zwirner & Wirth
