Includes bibliographical references (pages 393-480) and index.

This volume is a biography of American artist Alice Neel (1900-1984), known for her oil on canvas portraits of friends, family, lovers, poets, artists and strangers. Her paintings are notable for their expressionistic use of line and color, psychological acumen, and emotional intensity. This work also is a cultural history of the artistic and political scene in 20th-century New York. Neel was an artist with a passion for painting the human figure at a time when abstraction was fashionable, resulting in years of financial hardship and obscurity. Neel emerges as a resolute survivor who lived by her convictions, both aesthetically and politically. A single mother committed to a bohemian lifestyle, Neel was also a supporter of political movements that ranged from Communism to feminism.

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