Baterbys Art Auction Gallery - Bios

Alice Neel

(1900-1984) Alice Neel was an American portrait painter born on January 28, 1900 in Merion Square, Pennsylvania. Neel enrolled full-time in the Philadelphia School of Design for Women after three years of working a clerical position. Neel married a Cuban painter named Carlos Enríquez, the son of wealthy parents shortly after finishing her schooling in Philadelphia in 1925. Neel returned to New York after an extended visit with her close friend and frequent subject, Nadya Olyanova. There Neel painted the local characters that were composed of artists, intellectuals, and political leaders of the Communist Party. Neel moved to Spanish Harlem where she began painting her neighbors, particularly women and children. It was during this decade that Neel made illustrations for the Communist publication, Masses & Mainstream while continuing painting portraits. However, it was also during this decade that, save for one solo show in 1944, all of Neel’s art disappeared from galleries. In 1959, Neel made a film appearance in Robert Frank’s classic Beatnik film, Pull My Daisy, alongside a young Allen Ginsberg. In 1960, Neel’s work was first reproduced in ARTnews Magazine. Interest in Neel’s work intensified towards the end of the 1960s. Neel’s artworks became even more in demand after Neel became an icon for Feminists. In 1970 Time Magazine commissioned Neel to paint Feminist activist Kate Millett for the cover of their magazine. Neel had gained celebrity and stature as an important American artist by the mid-1970s. Neel was presented by President Jimmy Carter with a National Women’s Caucus for Art Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1979. Neel’s reputation was at its height at the time of her death in 1984.