Alice Neel was an Amer­i­can painter whose long career spanned from the Great Depres­sion to post World War II and into the 1960’s. Her paint­ings are noted for their expres­sion­is­tic use of line and color, and por­traits both psy­cho­log­i­cal and emo­tional, cap­tur­ing what was impact­ing her and the world at the time.

Neel grew up in Penn­syl­va­nia, first work­ing in a high-paying cler­i­cal posi­tion the sup­port her fam­ily, and later attend­ing the Philadel­phia School of Design for Women. Upon fin­ish­ing school, Neel endured some per­sonal dif­fi­cul­ties; she wed soon after grad­u­a­tion and was preg­nant with her first child, whom died before their first birth­day. After hav­ing a sec­ond child, her hus­band left with child in tow. After­ward, Neel suf­fered a break­down and attempted suicide.

Forced back home with her par­ents after an extended hos­pi­tal stay, she com­posed her world of artists, intel­lec­tu­als, and polit­i­cal lead­ers of the Com­mu­nist Party, all of whom became sub­jects for her paint­ings. Her work glo­ri­fied sub­ver­sion and sex­u­al­ity, depict­ing scenes lovers and nudes. She sym­pa­thized with the Com­mu­nist Party, con­tribut­ing illus­tra­tions to their pub­li­ca­tions. In the 1960’s, she became an icon for Fem­i­nists and the Women’s Move­ment, her work gar­ner­ing more attention.

I have long been a fan of Alice Neel. Her work uses an abstrac­tion of facial fea­tures, slightly dis­tort­ing them and the ges­ture of the fig­ures. This, paired with her sense of color gives it a somber feel­ing indica­tive of the cul­ture sur­round­ing the Depres­sion, post­war, and Cold War era.

All images via the Museum of Fine Arts, Hous­ton.