Alice Neel. The Pregnant Woman468 x 310 - 96k - gifwww.uam.ucsb.edu
Alice Neel. The Family (John Gruen, ...274 x 310 - 65k - gifwww.uam.ucsb.edu
Alice Neel Self-Portrait420 x 560 - 152k - jpgwww.npr.org
Alice Neel's daring portraits of ...400 x 548 - 63k - jpgwww.tfaoi.com




Alice Neel will be accompanied by a ...397 x 701 - 72k - jpgwww.tfaoi.com
Alice Neel, "John Perreault," 1972.612 x 360 - 48k - jpgjohnperreault.com



I first learned about Alice Neel when Isabel and I were at the Philadelphia Museum of fine art a couple of Thanksgivings ago. I bought a couple of post cards of her paintings: Harley on a Rocking Horse (1943) and two of her male nudes, Joe Gould(1933) which has no fewer than four penises, and John Perrault (1972) with only one. They are interesting nudes because they do not glorify the male figure, but they are beautifully painted.

I read some of her biography in Alice Neel by Ann Temkin. I was strangely relieved to learn that she had troubles worse than I do. She married a Cuban and had a daughter Isabetta, who ended up being raised in Cuba mostly by their aunts. She divorced then had two more sons nearly ten years later. It made me thankfull that I am not separated from my children. I thinkt hat would make me mad. She did try to kill herself and was hospitalized for depression at the Philadelphia General Hospital. She made a paintingof herself there in 1931. In the end she was quite successfull, so she recovered herself enough to go on into old age. There is even a photograph of her by Mapplethorpe in 1984, the same year she was on the Johnny Carson Show. How things turn out from such rough beginnings cannot be predicted.

Picked up a book of poems by Michael Chitwood From Whence. Liked Luke's Mom, Skinning, The Seaons Come and the Seasons Keep Coming.