Alice Neel: Hot Off the Griddle

Fascinating exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery of portraits by Alice Neel.

I liked the way the show started upstairs using the more restricted spaces to tell the story of her early life and work. Throughout I got an impression of a happy, friendly lady so was interested to read of her bouts of depression. Her personal life seems to have been a series of relationships but whatever the circumstance she seems to have stayed friends with the men or their families.

I particularly liked the works she did for Roosevelt’s Public Works of Art Project in the Depression. Unlike her usual portraits these were naïve street scenes. Also upstairs it was a nice touch to show a contemporary film by Helen Levitt to show the life around Neel when she lived in Spanish Harlem.

Downstairs concentrated on the work for which Neel is best known, her portraits from the 1960s onwards of the political and artistic world of New York. I love the way she caught the stance and gestures of people as well as beautiful likenesses and yet the backgrounds and extremities often remained sketchy with an unfinished look.  I loved the fact they were hung in big, unbroken up spaces to set up dialogues between people who must have known each other.

I had read reviews of a previous show at The Met and been sorry to not be able to go so I was delighted to see a version had come here.

Closes 21 May 2023


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