Pictures of People: Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery [Hardcover]

Pamela Allara (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

A vibrant chronicle of the life and work of a prolific painter and bohemian eccentric.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

6 x 9 trim. 201 illus. (18 color). LC 97-18403

About the Author

PAMELA ALLARA is Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Fine Arts Department at Brandeis University. Author of exhibition catalogs and curator of exhibits on a variety of subjects, her articles have appeared in such publications as American Art, Art New England, and ARTnews.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: Brandeis; 1st edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874518377
• ISBN-13: 978-0874518375
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,378,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacks Color Images, April 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pictures of People: Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery (Hardcover)

The narration of this book seemed to be very useful and well researched, however, even though a great number of her paintings where present throughout the book, I would have preferred them be in color instead of black and white illustrations. That was most disappointing.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars too much text, February 10, 2008

By 

T. D. Nielsen (albany, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pictures of People: Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery (Paperback)

I love Alice Neel's work. That being said this is a book that offers more text than images. If you know nothing about her background then this is a great book. Since I was already familiar with her biography I was disappointed to not see more of her work and also wanted to see more of it in color(a lot of photos were black and white).

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth, July 2, 2009

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Pictures of People: Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery (Paperback)

Throughout her long artistic career Alice Neel was primarily a figurative painter producing portraits and thus her career's arc gives rise to the author's title. Neel spent years not being recognized as critics focused on art movements such as abstract expressionism. Her own early expressionism found subjects in trauma and the family. Work produced before 1933 had innovative content.

Alice Neel married a fellow young artist, a Cuban, Carlos Enriquez. Cuba was a source of interest to a number of Americans including Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos and Walker Evans. Neel and her husband were influenced by the Cuban avant-garde.

The artist moved to Greenwich Village in 1931. At the time she could be characterized as a social realist and after 1933 through the early years of the forties she was a WPA artist. She moved to Spanish Harlem in 1939. One of the author's contentions is that Neel created a proletarian portrait gallery. When following the war America became child-centered, Neel painted an America of poverty. Neel's family, raising sons Richard and Harley, was matrifocal.

Alice Neel appeared in the movie, PULL MY DAISY. Later the proletarian gallery of Neel shifted to being a New York Art Network as her sitters began to include quasi-famous people. She gained recognition in 1962.

The book describes a long journey to acclaim. Some of the issues the author treats in an interesting fashion are political. Our family bought this book after viewing a movie about Alice Neel created by a grandchild. The book is everything we had hoped for in broadening our appreciation of Neel. It is now possible to understand how circumstances bearing on a woman's place deprived her of public appreciation earlier in her career. That said, leftist politics did provide a community of comrades tending to give the artist some psychological and spiritual support. She remains a role model to anyone seeking sustenance through her example of leading an extraordinarily productive life amidst serious material and emotional deprivations.