Neel, Alice Canary, Girl, Fire Escape

Neel, Alice Canary, Girl, Fire Escape

Date: October 4, 2011 EI Presenter: Mary Alice Dwyer Artwork Title: Canary, Girl and Fire Escape – Portrait Year Created: 1938 Artist: Alice Neel (1900-84) These are the 5 most essential aspects of this work of art: 1. Artist defiantly painted figurative work during the height of Abstract Expressionism 2. Drawing is first and foremost to the artist 3. Use of line and color to stress a psychological state or emotion 4. Suggests an identification with the small and powerless 5. Engages the emotions of the viewer Questions I would ask when viewing this object with visitors: 1. How did the artist use lines, color and texture? 2. How does this painting make you feel? Why? 3. What do you think the artist was trying to say here? 4. Is the window open? What else? 5. How many birds do you see? About the Artist: Alice Neel came of age at the height of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. In the 1970s she was hailed as an icon for the Feminist movement. She called herself “a collector of souls”. She met her first husband, Carlos Enriguez, at art camp while attending the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. After her graduation in 1925, they moved to Havana living with Carlos’ wealthy parents. Neel was embraced by the young avante-garde set of artists, musicians, and writers, and it was here that she developed her life-long political consciousness and her commitment to equality. After the birth of their first daughter, the family moved to NYC. Just before her first birthday the child died of diphtheria.In 1928, Isabetta was born. In the Spring of 1930, Carlos returned to Cuba, taking the child him. Neel suffered a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide. After a lengthy recovery, she settled in Spanish Harlem and was hired by the WPA to paint urban scenes. Neel painted members of the Puerto Rican community and established herself in the circle of downtown intellectuals. By the end of the 1960s, interest in Neel’s work intensified. She was given a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1974; in the 1979 President Carter presented the National Women’s Caucus for Art Award to her for outstanding achievement. Alice Neel’s reputation was at its height at the time of her death in 1984. Tours People, Portraits and Places, Learning to Look, Artful Animals, Symbols and Icons Sources: Hoban, Phoebe, Portraits: Alice Neel’s Legacy of Realism. NY Times Art and Design: New York, 2010 Alice Neel: Artist and Art (http://the-artists.org/artist/neel-alice) .

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