An Annotated Bibliography on Alice Neel

This picture to the left, about which I wrote my initial commentary, is "Last Sickness" by Alice Neel. Here is my annotated bibliography on this fascinating American artist:


“The Art of Alice Neel.” The Whitney Museum for American Art. Arizona:
Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., 2008. Web. 31 Jan. 2009.
http://tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa668.htm

This website tells the interesting story of Alice Neel and her unique and sometimes shocking portraits and paintings of different people. This page addresses the specific issue of how Alice Neel’s life influenced her works of art. A number of her paintings are of her family, including “Isabetta” (1934), and her famous, haunting painting, “Last Sickness” (1953). “Isabetta” portrays Neel’s young daughter, in the nude, with an “assertive” look upon her face, while the aptly titled “Last Sickness” is a remarkably touching, melancholy depiction of Neel’s mother when she was in the final chapter of her life. On a related link to the website, http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa410.htm, there is an actual image of the portrait, with additional information about Alice Neel and some of her other works. This article, like the article by Berger, also talks about how Neel became famous as her paintings increased in popularity and how her fame may have affected her artistic style.

Berger, Michael. “About the Artist: Alice Neel Biography.” Pittsburgh: Michael Berger Gallery,
2009. Web. 31 Jan. 2009. http://www.mbergerart.com/neel/about.htm

This website gives a concise, yet appropriately detailed biography of the curious, sometimes difficult and troubled life of Alice Neel. While the specific topic of her portrait “Final Sickness” is not directly addressed, Michael Berger, the author, delves into the personal struggles that Alice Neel faced throughout her life. Her family went through many turbulent occurrences, including an instance when “her first husband [she had two altogether] in a fit of rage destroyed 300 of her pictures,” according to Berger. He discusses how her style in art and portraiture changed in the later years of her life, as her personal tribulations began to ease. Her art consisted more of family and calmer topic, since, as Berger describes, “The anger and search for causes of her earlier work yielded to a new calm, a sense of humor and love.” Additionally, the author describes how Neel approached the art of portraiture, as she used no photographs and “relied on observation and memory.” Observation at its purest is one of the numerous facets that fascinate me about Alice Neel.

AliceNeel.com: The Website of the Alice Neel Estate. The Estate of Alice Neel, 2009.
Web. 31 Jan. 2009. http://www.aliceneel.com/home/

This website is the online source for almost everything one could ask for about Alice Neel. There is an incredibly detailed time-line style biography of her life throughout the decades, a gallery filled with many of her works, along with a listing of links that lead to more information about the unique American artist. Understandably, out of all the pictures and detailed information, I was surprised to find not a single image of her famous painting, “Last Sickness” on this website. However, I did encounter a strikingly similar Neel painting, also of her mother, appropriately titled “My Mother.” She completed this characteristically emotional, meticulous painting in 1952, only a year prior “Last Sickness.” Upon initially viewing “My Mother,” I immediately recognized the subject of the portrait to be the same elderly woman. Minimal shortcomings aside, this website, operated by the Alice Neel Estate, will be incredibly helpful in studying Neel and observing how her style morphed over the colorful decades of her unique life.