Permanent Collection

 Prints

Southern Alleghenies

Museum of Art

Alice Neel

(American, 1900-1984)

Young Woman, 1975

Serigraph, 58/200, 40" x 25"

Gift of Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York

(95.146)
Although Alice Neel is categorized as a realist, she imposes an emphatic Expressionistic conception on the subjects of her many portraits.  The Portrait of a Young Woman illustrated here typifies Neel's style in the elongation of the arms, the outlining of the isolated figure in black, and the drawn appearance of the woman's face, stylistic devices used to heighten emotional impact.  Like Philip Pearlstein, the people she paints are often members of the New York intelligentsia, information Neel relates in her mannered presentations.

Born in Merion Square, Pennsylvania, Neel attended the Philadelphia School of Design for Women from 1921 through 1925.  Her early works convey an expressionist tone reminiscent of America's Social Realists of the 1930s.  Her most striking and characteristic work was completed during the final decades of her long career, and she received professional recognition with an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1974. 

Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art
Saint Francis University Mall

P.O. Box 9,

Loretto, Pennsylvania  15940
Phone: (814) 472-3920  

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