Alice Neel On Paper

Alice Neel’s works on paper allow us to delve into the artist’s creative process at its most spontaneous. Through their formal immediacy, these works testify to the artist’s unique ability to convey intimacy through art. Neel’s drawings were rarely studies for later canvases, but rather, they held a different and independent place in her practice. While her paintings were generally created with the intention of public display, in contrast, her works on paper were mostly viewed in the private sphere. Alice Neel — On Paper comprises still lifes, memory drawings, and the distinctive portrait style that has cemented Neel’s legacy as one of the 20^th century’s most influential American painters. Though they have received less visibility than her paintings, Neel’s drawings are an important key to understanding the oeuvre of one of recent art history’s most complex figures.