Alice Neel / The Subject and Me
-
Talbot Rice Gallery is delighted to present 'The Subject and Me,' the first solo exhibition by Alice Neel in Scotland. It constitutes the latest in a series promoting the work of leading women artists, previously including Jane and Louise Wilson, Hanne Darboven, Jenny Holzer and Rosemarie Trockel.
'The Subject and Me' tells the story of the turbulent events that shaped Alice Neel’s life, through a retrospective of drawings and selection of late paintings. Emphasising the psychological perception that would allow Neel (1900-1984) to produce some of the most striking and resonant portraits of the twentieth century, the exhibition offers candid observations of sexuality, family, childhood, pain and poverty. It is also an important subjective document of life in post-war America.
Associating with Andy Warhol and the Beat Generation, Neel tended to exist on the peripheries of society. Now seen from a contemporary perspective, when human interaction becomes increasingly mediated, her work seems able to be able to open up a direct and accessible conversation about what happens when one person encounters another. Against a tendency in much of the celebrated art of the last century to remove the messiness of human existence, Neel’s work seems to strive for a more embracing world-view. To borrow from one of Neel’s close friends, poet Kenneth Fearing, the portraits seem to say: “I forgive you, to put it simply, for being alive, and pardon you, in short, for being you.”
Exhibition Guide
Press Release published on the occasion of 'Alice Neel / The Subject and Me' at Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh.
Texts are available to view below or download.
Alice Neel /The Subject and Me
29 July – 8 October 2016
Part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2016
The University of Edinburgh’s Talbot Rice Gallery presents 'The Subject and Me,' the first solo exhibition of Alice Neel in Scotland. Free-spirited, Alice Neel (1900-1984) was outspoken and unconventional, living on the peripheries of New York society and the art world and striving to resolve the tragedies, hardships and conflicts of life through her painting. This exhibition features a survey of intimate drawings and a selection of later paintings: candid observations of sexuality, family, childhood, pain and poverty.
Gallery 1 features a series of paintings produced by Neel in later life. Comprising characteristic portraits, with a sense of psychological and social depth, these works demonstrate Neel’s intimate and direct method of painting from life, of which she stated, “I know all the theory of everything but when I paint I don't think of anything except the subject and me.”
Gallery 2 presents drawings and watercolours spanning over 50 years of Neel’s career. Produced both from life and from memory, these works offer raw, often disturbing visions of the world. Depicting scenes of destructive relationships, images of her children and a self-portrait as a skull, the drawings illustrate how Neel used her work to make some sense of the darkest chapters of her life and the lives of those around her.
Exploration of Neel’s biography continues in the upper Gallery with an illustrated timeline, a feature-length documentary by her grandson Andrew Neel and a remarkable portrait of the artist by Robert Mapplethorpe. Taken only weeks before her death from cancer, the stark black and white photograph depicts Neel with closed eyes and open-mouth, a haunting and prescient signifier of her death.
It's a privilege, you know, to paint and it takes up a lot of time and it means there's a lot of things you don't do. But still, with me, painting was more than a profession, it was also an obsession. I had to paint.
Alice Neel
