ALICE NEEL : Los Angeles

I like it not only to look like the person, but to have their inner character as well,
and then I like to express the Zeitgiest.


-- Alice Neel










Alice Neel:
Paintings In association with Jeremy Lewison Limited
20 May - 26 June 2010
Opening reception, Thursday, 20 May, 6 - 8 pm







"Fiercely independent, free-spirited, and working at a time when figurative painting was unfashionable, Alice Neel pursued her art fearlessly. Painting in relative obscurity into her 60s, Neel received acclaim late in life, and is now valued as one of the most important American painters of the 20th century. Neel’s subjects were her sons, grandchildren, friends and acquaintances, art world figures, and sometimes people she encountered on the street. While some of her sitters were, or became, people of renown, most were simply those who caught her eye.

















In her art, Neel sought to convey the individual, and to reveal their inner life. Neel described the experience of painting: “I become the person for a couple of hours, so when they leave and I am finished….I have no self.” As Lewison states, “Neel entered into them, exploring their folds, creases and idiosyncrasies with her brush, sculpting them as though they were extensions of herself.” Neel’s paintings are imbued with a powerful understanding of her subject within an incisive temporal and social context.




















Alice Neel:
Paintings In association with Jeremy Lewison Limited
20 May - 26 June 2010
Opening reception, Thursday, 20 May, 6 - 8 pm

At LA Louver Gallery







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