| Description |
The American artist Alice Neel devoted the majority of her life to figurative art. While abstract expressionism flourished on the American art scene, Alice Neel chose to stick firmly to her own artistic idiom. Her colourful portrait paintings with their distinctive outlines are as much concer- ned with individuals as with social, cultural and political divisions within society. The key to Neel’s creative work was her conviction of the unique and powerful meeting between the artist and the model. Although she became well known for her painted portraits especially of people such as Andy Warhol, photographer Samuel Brody and art critic John Perreault, her works on paper are virtually unknown to the general public. They show a much more personal and intimate side of her art in highly sensitive and timeless works. There are impressive images of the artist's family and friends as well as delicate works where she deals with her own personal life, both its joy and pain. This summer’s exhibition is the first major presentation of Alice Neel’s watercolours and drawings ever to be held. Works are on loan from the Estate of Alice Neel in New York and international museums and private collections in USA and Europe. |