Alice Neel - An Engaged Eye -

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Résumé :
Alice Neel (1900-1984) is a singular and crucial figure in modern American painting. Her acute portraits of the various communities of New York, and her incisive portrayals of racial segregation and discrimination against women and homosexuals, show a passionate commitment to tackling inequality and social injustice. Her uncompromising approach to the female nude has made her a feminist icon. Neel's vibrant, expressionistic paintings reveal a breathtaking depth of emotion in her subjects, and confirm her as one of the greatest portrait artists of the 20th century. Based on two broad themes - class struggle and the battle of the sexes - Alice Neel : An Engaged Eye expertly explores the political and social dimensions of her powerful paintings, and includes quotations and previously unpublished writing from the artist herself. From her first works in the 1920s to her final evocative self-portrait, made shortly before her death, this is the definitive work on Alice Neel. This publication accompanies a ground-breaking exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.