David Zwirner is pleased to present Alice Neel: Men from the Sixties at the gallery’s Hong Kong location. This will be the first exhibition of Neel’s work in Greater China. Widely regarded as one of the foremost American artists of the twentieth century, Neel (1900–1984) is known for her daringly honest, humanist approach to the figure. This focused presentation brings together a selection of significant paintings from the sixties, a decisive decade in the development of Neel’s practice. In these years, her style evolved into the looser, more open compositions that would characterize the later period of her career, while she also began to receive broader recognition for her work as an incisive artist and cultural figure. Ranging from depictions of men of personal or intellectual significance to Neel to those of anonymous individuals and acquaintances who interested her, the works on view present a nuanced examination of masculinity and attest to the artist’s commitment to capturing the character, emotions, and complexities of not only her sitters but also their era. As Neel once wrote: “I paint my time using the people as evidence.”1
Although Neel had been steadily painting and exhibiting her work since the late 1920s, it was in this period that she began to gain critical acclaim and increasingly interact with major cultural figures, painting well-known artists, critics, and authors as well as activists and politicians. Though Neel considered 1963 her breakthrough year, the decade as a whole was a decidedly momentous period in both the artist’s life and career. In 1962, Neel moved from Spanish Harlem on New York’s east side to 300 West 107th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, just south of Harlem, where she would live and work until her death. The new, light-filled apartment allowed her to paint on larger canvases and influenced the brighter color palette of her late work. That same year, Hubert Crehan, whose portrait hangs in the exhibition, published a watershed article—Neel’s first major press feature—in the October issue of ARTnews. Also during the sixties, her two sons graduated from college; she traveled to the West Coast, Europe, and Russia; she participated in protests to decry the lack of work by women and Black artists in exhibitions held at major New York museums; and she had nine solo exhibitions of her work—more than she had in total since the beginning of her career.
Among the works in the exhibition are paintings of men who were close to Neel, including significant cultural figures in her milieu. In these works, the artist sought to capture the complete person, celebrating their personality as well as their faults, complexities, and insecurities. The painting of Julian Beck (1964), who was an artist, writer, actor, director, and the co-founder of The Living Theatre—an experimental theater group that became known for its avant-garde productions—shows him with his sleeves rolled up, his pants wrinkled, and his hand poised as though he is about to speak. Using expressive brushstrokes, Neel deftly captures Beck’s bohemian nature and renegade spirit. In Ivan Karp (1965), the New York gallerist who was a key supporter of pop art is depicted wearing a dark suit, a mustard shirt, and a crimson tie, the bright colors of which are perhaps a reference to the vibrant palette of the art he championed.
Included in the presentation is a depiction of her eldest son, Richard. Painted in 1968, the intimate work depicts him at the age of twenty-eight, not long after his graduation from Columbia Law School in New York, seated casually in a t-shirt and underwear. Here, Richard looks out at his mother intently, with his right leg resting comfortably across the arm of the blue-and-white-striped chair that features in many other works by the artist, including her renowned nude self-portrait from 1980. Stylistically, the painting exemplifies the characteristic openness that Neel developed throughout the decade, featuring gestural brushstrokes and a dark blue outline that would become a signature of her late work. The unfinished background—canvas-white save for a few swaths of blue and ochre pigment—is characterized by its abstract quality, which shows Neel experimenting with a mode of painting that contrasts with the detailed depiction of her sitter and that aligns more closely with the tenets of the then-dominant abstract expressionism.
Also on view are paintings of men whom Neel encountered in her daily life. The artist often referred to her oeuvre as the “human comedy” in homage to Honoré de Balzac, and indeed these canvases, which were all painted in Neel’s Upper West Side apartment, reflect her humanist approach, progressive spirit, and an unwavering commitment to painting pictures of people. As writer Hilton Als remarked: “Neel was a painter of modern life, and part of her genius was based on her knowledge and embrace of the fact that New York was not a homogenous place; she knew there were many different kinds of stories to tell when she sat in front of that canvas.”2 In Randall in Extremis (1960), Neel depicts the artist Harrell Randall Bailey who worked as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In this portrait, Neel pays particular attention to Bailey’s hands; his elongated fingers grasp at the fabric of his pants, revealing not only a sense of agitation on the part of the sitter but Neel’s deep understanding of the psyche of her subject. Neel painted Man from Fordham (1965) after meeting the unnamed sitter during her 1965 exhibition at the eponymous university. Dressed in a crisp white shirt, the man appears to be engaging with the painter, his lips slightly parted and his eyebrows arched. In 1966, she painted a young Black man in a brown leather armchair. Through her advocacy and in her work, Neel often addressed the lack of nonwhite representation in the mainstream art world. Painting both ordinary individuals as well as prominent civil rights leaders such as James Farmer (1964) and Black cultural figures including playwright Alice Childress (1950) and author Harold Cruse (c. 1950), Neel demonstrated her sustained attention to contemporary issues regarding race and her desire to diversify the canon.
Included in the exhibition is the critically-acclaimed, feature-length documentary Alice Neel (2007), directed by the artist’s grandson Andrew Neel.
Neel’s work is the subject of a concurrent major survey at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, that will subsequently travel to the Barbican Centre, London. A critically lauded retrospective of her work was organized and presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain; and the de Young Museum, San Francisco, in 2021 and 2022.
Alice Neel (1900-1984) was born in 1900 in Merion Square, Pennsylvania, and died in 1984 in New York. In 1921, she enrolled in the fine art program at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design) and graduated in 1925.
Although she exhibited sporadically early in her career, her work has been shown widely from the 1960s onwards. In 1971, a comprehensive solo exhibition of Neel's paintings was held at her alma mater Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, and in 1974, she had her first retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. It was followed by a large-scale presentation of eighty-three paintings in 1975 at the Georgia Museum of Art, The University of Georgia, Athens. In 1978, the Graham Gallery, New York, organized the first retrospective dedicated to the artist's works on paper, and in 1979, a survey of her paintings was cohosted by the University of Bridgeport and The Silvermine Guild of Artists in Connecticut.
To celebrate the centenary of the artist's birth, the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized a solo exhibition of Neel’s work, which debuted in 2000 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, before traveling to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, among other venues. In 2010, the survey exhibition Alice Neel: Painted Truths was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and traveled to the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and Moderna Museet Malmö, Sweden. In 2013, a major presentation of the artist's watercolors and drawings, Alice Neel: Intimate Relations, was on view at Nordiska Akvarellmuseet in Skärhamn, Sweden. In 2016, the Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki organized Alice Neel: Painter of Modern Life, which traveled to the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, and the Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles, France, before concluding at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg in 2018.
The major retrospective, Alice Neel: People Come First, was first on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 2021, before traveling to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the de Young Museum, San Francisco. Also in 2022, Alice Neel: Un regard engagé is on view at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. The exhibition will then travel to the Barbican Centre, London.
Other solo presentations include those held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC (2005); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2008); The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2011); and the Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh (2016).
Work by the artist is represented in permanent collections that include the Art Institute of Chicago; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Tate, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Since 2008, The Estate of Alice Neel has been represented by David Zwirner, where her work was presented in 2009 in a critically acclaimed, two-venue solo exhibition, Alice Neel: Selected Works and Alice Neel: Nudes of the 1930s (on view at Zwirner & Wirth, New York). Other solo exhibitions at the gallery in New York include Alice Neel: Late Portraits & Still Lifes in 2012; Alice Neel: Drawings and Watercolors 1927-1978 in 2015; Alice Neel, Uptown, curated by Hilton Als, in 2017; Alice Neel: Freedom in 2019; and Alice Neel: The Early Years in 2021.
Image: Alice Neel, Man from Fordham, 1965. © The Estate of Alice Neel. Courtesy The Estate of Alice Neel and David Zwirner
1 Alice Neel, “Artists on Their Art,” Art International 12, no. 5 (May 15, 1968), p. 4.
2 Hilton Als, catalogue entry, in Als and Jeremy Lewison, Alice Neel: Uptown (New York and London: David Zwirner Books and Victoria Miro, 2017), p. 71.
For all press inquiries, contact
Victoria Kung +852 2119 5900 vkung@davidzwirner.com
《愛麗絲·尼爾：六⼗年代的男人們》
2022年11月17日-12⽉21⽇
香港中環皇后⼤道中80號，H Queen’s，6樓
卓納畫廊欣然於香港空間呈現展覽《愛麗絲·尼爾：六十年代的男人們》。這將是尼爾作品在大中華地區的首展。尼爾（1900-1984）被公認為⼆十世紀最重要的美國藝術家之一，她以⼤膽坦誠、人文主義的⼈物創作廣為人知。這次展覽精選地匯集了了她1960年代創作的重要作品，這十年是尼爾藝術實踐中極具決定意義的階段。在這幾年間，她的創作演化成更寬鬆、更開放的構圖，形成了她在職業生涯後期備受肯定的風格，那時的她已是一位犀利的藝術家和文化人物，作品也收穫了了更多認可。從對尼爾來說在個人或智識層面具有重要意義的男性，到那些令她感興趣的或匿名或相識的人，展覽中的這些作品展現了了藝術家對男性特質的細緻檢視，還體現出藝術家不僅僅致⼒於捕捉人物的性格、情感和復雜性，也 致⼒於捕捉人物所⾝身處的時代。正如尼爾曾經所寫的那樣：「我將人作為證據來來描繪我的時代。」1
儘管尼爾自1920年代晚期便開始穩定地創作、展出作品，不過她從1960年年代才開始收穫好評，越來越多地同其他重要的文化人物相互交流，並且為知名的藝術家、藝評人、作家、活動家和政治家們作畫。尼爾將1963年年視為突破性的⼀年，但整個60年代對藝術家的⽣活和職業生涯⽽言都具有決定性的意義。 1962年，尼爾從紐約東邊的西裔哈林區搬到了曼哈頓上西區的西107街300號，就在哈林區的南端， 她此後一直生活工作於此，直至離世。這間嶄新的、光線充⾜足的公寓讓她可以在更更⼤大尺幅的畫布上創作，而且也直接影響她在晚期作品中採⽤了了更明朗的色彩。同年，此次展覽中有其肖像作品出現的休伯特·克雷漢（Hubert Crehan）在1962年10月刊的《藝術新聞》（ARTnews）上發表了一篇極具分水嶺意義的文章——這是第一篇重要的有關尼爾的專題報導。在60年代間，尼爾的兩個兒⼦紛從⼤學畢業， 她曾前往西海岸、歐洲和俄羅斯等地遊歷，也參與了了許多抗議活動，譴責紐約重要博物館的展覽缺少對 女性和黑人藝術家們作品的呈現，此外她還舉辦了九次個展——在當時，這比她職業生涯開始以來的個展總數更多。
此次展覽的作品中，有一些是與尼爾關係密切的人的肖像，包括她身邊那些重要的文化人物。在其中， 藝術家試著捕捉人物的全貌，讚美他們的個性，但也包括他們的缺點、複雜之處和不安全感。朱利安·貝克（Julian Beck）的肖像（1964）描繪了這位藝術家、作家、演員、導演，同時他也是「生活劇場」（The Living Theatre）的聯合創始人——這個試驗性的戲劇團體以其前衛的作品著名，畫面中的他袖管捲起、褲子褶皺，⽽手部姿態看來他好像正要說些什什麼。尼爾用極富表現力的筆觸，巧妙地捕捉了⾙貝 克⾝身上波西米亞的特質和叛逆的精神。在《伊万·卡普》（Ivan Karp，1965）中，這位波普藝術重要⽀支持者的紐約畫廊主，身穿⼀一套深色西裝、⼀件芥黃色的襯衫和一條鮮紅的領帶，這些鮮亮的色彩或許呼應了了卡普所倡導的波普藝術的色彩傾向。
展覽中有一幅畫描繪了她的大兒⼦理查德（Richard）。這幅讓人倍感親密的作品創作於1968年年，當時 的理查德28歲，剛從紐約哥倫比亞⼤學法學院畢業不久，他休閒地⾝身穿T恤和內褲端坐著。在畫中，理查德專注地望向⾃己的母親，右腿自在地橫跨在一把藍⽩條紋相間的椅子上，這把椅⼦子還出現在藝術家 許多其他的作品中，包括尼爾1980年創作的那幅著名的⾃畫像。從風格上看，這幅畫極佳地展露出尼爾在這⼗年間發展出來的開放的特點，其動態的筆觸和深藍色的輪廓線都在日後成為了藝術家晚期創作的標誌。作品⼤量留白的背景——除了一些藍色和赭⾊的顏料，都展露出畫布本來的原色——充滿了抽象的創作特質，反映出尼爾在試驗另⼀種繪畫模式，使之與被描繪對象的豐富細節產⽣反差，⽽而且與當 時佔據主流的抽象表現主義更更為⼀致。
同樣囊括於展覽中的，還有⼀些尼爾描繪她在日常生活中遇到的男性的畫作。藝術家常常將她的創作稱為「⼈人間喜劇」（human comedy），這是她對奧諾雷·德·巴爾扎克（Honoré de Balzac）的致敬， 確實，這些作品都完成於尼爾上西區的公寓中，反映出她⼈文主義的創作方式、漸進累積的精神，以及 對於刻畫⼈物的堅定信念。正如作家希爾頓·阿爾斯（Hilton Als）所言：「尼爾是一位現代⽣生活的畫家， 她的部分天賦是基於她的知識以及她對紐約並非一座同質化城市這⼀事實的了解和接受。她深知端坐在畫布前的自己有許多故事要講述。」2 在作品《⾝處絕境的蘭德爾》（1960）中，尼爾刻畫了藝術家哈雷爾·蘭德爾·⾙利（Harrell Randall Bailey），他曾在紐約大都會藝術博物館中擔任安保人員。在這幅肖像中，尼爾特別地專注於貝利利的雙手：他修長的手指抓著⾃己褲⼦的布料，不僅顯出這位畫中人的焦慮不安，也表現了了尼爾對其刻畫對象之⼼理的深刻理解。 《來自福特漢姆大學的男人》（1965），是尼爾在1965年於福特漢姆大學舉辦的展覽上遇到這位男士之後創作的。他⾝身穿潔⽩白的襯衫，似乎在和畫家交談：嘴唇微微張開，眉毛向上拱起。 1966年，她描繪了一位年輕的⿊人男子，他坐在⼀把棕色的⽪質座椅中。通過身體力行地倡導和⾃己的作品，尼爾經常提請大家注意主流藝術界中缺少對非⽩⼈藝術家呈現的現象。尼爾既刻畫普通人，也畫過傑出的民權領袖，像是詹姆斯·法默（James Farmer） 的肖像（1964），還包括其他⿊人文化⼈物，比如1950年創作的劇作家愛麗絲·柴爾德里斯（Alice Childress）和大約1950年刻畫的作家哈羅德·克魯斯（Harold Cruse）等，這些都表明了尼爾對當代種族主義問題的持續關注，以及她對藝術史評判準則變得更豐富多樣的希望。
此外，展覽還將呈現廣獲好評的長篇紀錄片《愛麗絲·尼爾》（2007），由藝術家的孫子安德魯·尼爾（Andrew Neel）執導拍攝。
尼爾的作品日前正在巴黎蓬皮杜藝術中心舉辦重要的回顧展，並將在隨後巡展至倫敦的巴比肯藝術中心。 2021到2022年間，紐約大都會藝術博物館、⻄班牙畢爾巴鄂古根海姆美術館以及舊金⼭笛揚博物館共同組織了藝術家的作品回顧展，備受好評。
愛麗絲·尼爾（Alice Neel, 1900-1984）1900年出生於賓夕法尼亞州的梅里恩廣場，1984年在紐約去世。 1921年，她入學了費城女⼦設計學院（現為摩爾藝術與設計學院）的藝術專業，並在1925年畢業。
儘管尼爾在職業生涯早期就有過零星的參展經歷，但從1960年代開始，她的作品才得到廣泛的展出。1971年，她的母校摩爾藝術與設計學院為其舉辦了⼀場大型個展，1974年，她在紐約的惠特尼美國藝術 博物館舉辦了⾃己的首場回顧展。 1975年，位於喬治亞洲雅典的喬治亞大學美術館為藝術家舉辦了一場大型個展，囊括了她83件繪畫作品。 1978年，紐約的格雷厄姆畫廊（Graham Gallery）為藝術家組織了了⾸次專注於她紙本作品的回顧展，⽽在1979年，橋港⼤學（University of Bridgeport）和康涅狄格州藝術家銀礦協會（The Silvermine Guild of Artists in Connecticut）共同策劃舉辦了了尼爾繪畫藝術的專題學術展。
2000年，時值藝術家的百年誕辰之際，費城藝術博物館為尼爾的作品組織了一場個展，展覽於2000年在紐約的惠特尼美國藝術博物館首展，所有巡展至包括明尼蘇達州明尼阿波利斯的沃克藝術中心在內的 多個機構。2010年，藝術家的專題個展《愛麗絲·尼爾：繪畫的真相》組織呈現於休斯頓藝術博物館， 隨後巡展至倫敦的⽩教堂美術館和瑞典的馬爾默現代美術館。2013年，藝術家的水彩繪畫作品個展《愛麗絲·尼爾：親密關係》在瑞典謝爾港的北歐水彩博物館（Nordiska Akvarellmuseet）舉行。 2016年， 赫爾辛基的阿黛濃藝術博物館組織了展覽《愛麗絲·尼爾：現代⽣活的畫家》，隨後巡展⾄海牙市立博物館以及法國阿爾勒勒的⽂森特·梵⾼基金會，並於2018年在德國漢堡堤壩之⾨美術館迎來最後一站。
2021年，紐約的大都會藝術博物館舉辦了藝術家的大型回顧展《愛麗絲·尼爾：以人為先》，展覽隨後巡展至畢爾巴鄂古根海姆博物館以及舊金⼭的笛洋美術館。同樣是在2022年，⼤型個展《愛麗絲·尼爾： 投注的⽬光》在巴黎的蓬⽪杜藝術中心拉開帷幕，並將在隨後巡展⾄倫敦的巴比肯藝術中心。其他曾為藝術家舉辦過個展的重要機構還包括：美國家女性藝術博物館，華盛頓特區（2005）；斯德哥爾摩當代美術館（2008）；道格拉斯海德美術館，都柏林（2011）；以及愛丁堡⼤學的塔爾博特萊斯畫廊（2016）。
藝術家的作品被珍藏於世界各地重要博物館的館藏中，包括：芝加哥藝術博物館、華盛頓特區的赫希洪博物館和雕塑園、紐約的⼤都會藝術博物館、斯德哥爾摩當代美術館、洛杉磯當代藝術博物館、德州的休斯敦美術館、紐約現代藝術博物館、華盛頓特區的美國國家美術館、費城藝術博物館、倫敦的泰特美 術館，以及紐約的惠特尼美國藝術博物館等。
⾃2008年起，愛麗絲·尼爾藝術遺產基⾦會由卓納畫廊代理。 2009年，她的作品在畫廊位於紐約的兩個空間舉辦了個展《愛麗絲·尼爾：精選作品展》以及《愛麗絲·尼爾：1930年代的裸像》（呈現於當時的紐約卓納與沃斯畫廊）。藝術家在紐約空間的其他畫廊個展還包括：《愛麗絲·尼爾：晚期肖像與靜物》，2012年；《愛麗絲·尼爾：1927-1978年的⼩幅繪畫與水彩》，2015年；《愛麗絲·尼爾，上城》，2017年，由希爾頓·艾爾（Hilton Als）策展；《愛麗絲·尼爾：自由》，2019年；以及《愛麗絲·尼爾：早年作品》，2021年。
題圖：愛麗絲·尼爾，《來自福特漢姆大學的男人》，1965年。 © 愛麗絲·尼爾藝術遺產基⾦會。圖片由愛麗絲·尼爾藝術遺產基⾦會及卓納畫廊提供
2 希爾頓·阿爾斯（Hilton Als），展覽圖冊條⽬目，收錄錄於阿爾斯和傑⾥里里⽶米·路路易易森（Jeremy Lewison）的《愛麗絲·尼爾：上城》（紐約和倫倫敦：卓納圖書和維多利利亞·⽶米羅畫廊[Victoria Miro]共同出版，2017年年），第71⾴頁。
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龔凱欣 Victoria Kung +852 2119 5900 vkung@davidzwirner.com