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Artist or Maker: Alice Neel (1901-1984)
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Provenance: Robert Miller Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner
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Exhibited: New York, ACA Gallery, First Competitive Exhibition: Five Honorable Mention Winners, September 1936.
Berlin, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, The Other America: Art and The Labour Movement in The United States, p. 35 (illustrated). Traveling exhibition, 1992.
New Brunswick, Rutgers University Art Gallery Realism and Realities, The Other Side of American Painting: 1940-1960, January-March 1982.
New York, ACA Gallery, Voice of Conscience: Then and Now, December 1995-February 1996.
New York, Robert Miller Gallery, Alice Neel: Paintings from the Thirties, March-April 1997, p. 27 (illustrated and in detail on the front cover).
San Francisco State University, Art Department Art Gallery, Unthinkable Tenderness: The Art of Human Rights, February-March 1998.
New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art; Andover, Andover Philips Academy, Addison Gallery of American Art; Philadephia Museum of Art; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center and Denver Art Museum, Alice Neel, June 2000-December 2001, p. 102, pl. 22 (illustrated in color).
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Literature: P. Foner and R. Schultz, Das Andere Amerika, Berlin, 1985, p. 35 (illustrated).
P. Hills, Alice Neel, New York, 1983, p. 61 (illustrated).
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Notes: Property from the Collection of Edward R. Broida
"I was a Communist when I painted Nazis Murder Jews, about a Communist torchlight parade in about 1936. The people in front are Sid Gottcliffe and others who were on the WPA project. I showed the painting at the A.C.A. Gallery. A critic wrote: 'An interesting picture, but the sign is too obvious.' But if they had noticed that sign, thousands of Jews might have been saved" (as quoted in Alica Neel: Paintings from the Thirties, New York, 1997, p. 26).
An important early Alice Neel painting from the 1930s, Nazis Murder Jews, 1936 reflects the tumultuous era of the Great Depression in America. A time of extreme hardship, it was also a time of dynamic change--labor was being organized, Communism was gathering strength and people who had little to lose were willing to rally around social causes. Neel epitomized the 1930s artist--she was a part of the WPA as a matter of survival and also part of various artists' group who were formed to try to better their own lot, as well as make a difference in their community and the world at large.
Neel shows a Communist protest march, marching down a wide New York avenue under the wary eye of police officers on horseback. Neel, who was a part of the Artists' Union, an organization formed in 1933 to combat fascism, was herself at this march, which explains the vividness and detail with which the scene is realized. Bright banners emblazoned with hammer and sickles shine through the darkness, as do the thickly painted van Gogh-esque torches. The mass of caricatured humanity spilling down the canvas brings to mind James Ensor's Entry of Christ into Brussels and the work of Edvard Munch, albeit filtered through the Social Realist concerns of the time.
Throughout Neel's work, there is a spirit of hope and optimism--even in the present lot, Neel depicts a mass of humanity protesting for change, showing those who care enough to speak out against injustice. Neel was an active member of that community, both in deed and in her art. Neel's message, intended as a kind of wake up call to the world, was one that unfortunately was not heeded.
Exhibited at A.C.A. Gallery in 1936, the show included winners of a contest held by the Artists' Congress, whose stated aim was to "achieve unity of action among artists or recognized standing in their profession on all issues which concern their economic and cultural security and freedom, and to fight War, Fascism and Reaction, destroyers of art and culture" (as quoted in Alice Neel, New York, 2000, p. 166).
The exhibition was reviewed by the conservative and acerbic tongued Emily Genauer, who praised the picture, but disparaged the central message, stating, "Alice Neel brandishes aloft the torch which she and the members of the Artists Union along with her hope will eventually lead to enlightenment and the destruction of Fascism. One, depicting a workers's parade, would be an excellent picture from the point of view of color, design and emoitional significance if the big bold black-and-white sign carried by one of the marchers at the head of the parade, didn't throw the rest of the composition completely out of gear by serving to tear a visual hole in the canvas" (Ibid, p. 166).
Although Neel is better known for her portraits, her work is much more varied in subject matter, particularly in the 1930s. During this decade, Neel painted some of the most ambitious and poignant works of her career. Her images of urban scenes, interiors and portraits paint a vivid portrait of the time.
