Author(s): ELEANOR NAIRNE

Arts

Dynamic and forward thinking, this unconventional retrospective monograph takes its cues from Alice Neel's life and work-- at once intimate, powerful, and bursting with colour. Alice Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century and a pioneer among women artists. A painter of people, landscape and still life, Neel was never fashionable or in step with avant-garde movements. "One of the reasons I painted was to catch life as it goes by," she explained, "right hot off the griddle." This beautifully designed volume takes a unique approach to the exhibition catalog, highlighting Neel's understanding of the fundamentally political nature of how we look at others, and what it means to feel seen. Long a favorite of portrait lovers, Neel has recently gained an even wider 21st-century audience appreciative of the searing candor with which she viewed the world, the depth of her humanity, and her championing of the underdog. This beautifully produced catalog features a thoroughly modern design, as well as an essay by renowned critic Hilton Als and poetry by Daisy Lafarge. AUTHOR: Eleanor Nairne is Curator at Barbican Art Gallery, London. She is a contributor to the London Review of Books, has written for magazines including frieze and is a previous Jerwood Writer in Residence. Her previous books with Prestel include Jean Dubuffet and Basquiat: Boom for Real! She live in London, England. 130 colour illustrations