Alice Neel @ Talbot Rice Gallery
The Subject and Me aims to narrate Alice Neel’s (1900-1984) turbulent life through her later paintings and drawings. Neel is showcased as a subject and maker presenting her personal life alongside her oeuvre. However, the sizeable display dismays an intended cohesive narrative that is not immediately evident, and her works incite individual contemplation.
With grandson Andrew Neel’s film Alice Neel (2007) and Robert Mapplethorpe’s harrowing portrait of the artist (1984) also on display, there is a strong attempt to present Neel beside her work. As one of the most significant portrait painters of the twentieth century she is a subject of interest to visitors, but also a subject for family and friends some of whom appear on display rendered by the artist.
Neel’s works are obviously of others, but they are difficult to sever from the artist herself. City Hospital (1954) shows Neel’s ill mother in a distressing scene. Her depiction of a loved one in despair recalls the detailed timeline upstairs of her own life marked by romantic, familial, and health-related hardships
Neel’s portraits of close acquaintances are also depictions of the artist’s life – her sitters are her entourage not unlike David Hockney’s giant feat 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life. Neel’s portraits are raw in her approach and depiction; parts are left 'unfinished', she leaves outlines for shoes empty and covers unwanted marks hastily before altering, and her sitters’ expressions are neither embellished nor retouched. There is a sense of immediacy that translates to her pictures.
The label for her portrait of friend Mary Garrard (1977) ends with an anecdote: Neel exclaimed “Stop, I want to paint you just like that,” before Garrard could take off her coat on a visit to Neel’s studio. Seemingly, Neel sets out with an agenda, to capture her sitter’s essence, and delivers no less, no more.
Alice Neel: The Subject and Me, at Talbot Rice Gallery until 8 Oct