Harmoniously Knocked-Up Codex

Does the fun never stop?

(left: Alice Neel's portrait of Faith Ringold)

Yesterday I went to the MFA to catch the film about Alice Neel before it leaves town forever. This is the one produced by her grandson Andrew, and it leaves one with more questions than answers at the end. Her personal life was very chaotic as she spent all her time on her art to the neglect of her children's welfare- one daughter died in infancy, a second daughter was abandoned in childhood and later committed suicide, an older son, Richard committed suicide in his adulthood also, leaving Andrew's father Hartley as the only surviving offspring.






Alice led a very bohemian lifestyle and had no income at all- one wonders how she raised her two sons, and Hartley won't talk about it even today.

Here is a better website about Alice Neel but they seem to not allow images to be used without permission, so go look on the site to see her outstanding 'pictures of people', as she referred to her portraits. Be sure to read the bio too.



The thing I am really stuck on is her lifestyle and how it affected so many people around her. The same can be said for her contemporary, the Abstract Expressionist sculptor Louise Nevelson. Both women were born at the turn of the century, both lived and worked in NYC, both had a singlular vision of their life as their art, both were involved with the WPA. And both were driven by their art, Nevelson in her Abstract Expressionist wooden constructions and Neel in her less accepted portraits. What price did the families of these women pay? What is the legacy of their human-being-ness rather than their art and is it of any consequence? Does the end justify the means after all?

Answer tomorrow. I need to think.