Alice Neel at The Met Museum
In June, 2021, the COVID infection rate in New York City are at the lowest they have been since the March of 2020, and that has brought the crowds back, in force. This was in full evidence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I went to see an exhibit of paintings by Alice Neel . But this exhibition was worthy of the crowds. Alice Neel (1900-1984) was an artist who’s work centered on portraits of people in her life. She started painting in her early 20’s in Philadelphia , and quickly adapted the expressionist style of the “Ashcan School.” The Ashcan painters sought to portray the gritty reality of the lives of working people in the large cities of the United States. Neel moved to New York City, where she lived in neighborhoods that were centers of working class and left-wing political cultures. Neel had many friendships, and a few relationships, with members of the Communist Party U.S.A., and produced illustrations for both New Masses magazine and The Daily Worker Newspaper. ...