Alice Neel

Victoria Miro is delighted to present At Home: Alice Neel in the Queer World, curated by Hilton Als. The gallery's ninth solo exhibition of works by the celebrated American painter further extends an ongoing exploration of aspects of Neel's work and its continuing relevance today.

One of the foremost painters of the twentieth century, and among its most radical, Alice Neel (1900-1984) is known for her daring honesty in her pursuit of what she termed 'the truth' - of the individual and the broader society in which individual lives were lived. At Home: Alice Neel in the Queer World highlights the artist's career-long commitment to depicting the human condition and her practice of painting people from many walks of life.

This exhibition focuses on her paintings of people from queer communities and those who were a part of their circle. The works on view include paintings of politicians, writers, performers and artists, as well as friends and neighbours - together forming a collective portrait that both embodies and complicates an understanding of the queer world of Neel's moment and the artist's place within it. As Als notes, this exhibition includes 'not just portraits of gay people but those of theorists, activists, politicians, and so on who would qualify as queer by virtue of their different take in their given field and thus the world. So doing, they reflect Alice's own interest in and commitment to difference.'

Highlights include paintings of figures such as New York City Mayor Ed Koch, painted by Neel in 1981; Frank O'Hara (one of two paintings of the poet and curator completed by Neel in 1960); the provocative Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, whom she painted from memory in 1966 after seeing him at a performance; performance artist and sexual icon Annie Sprinkle (1982); and Andy Warhol in a drawing (c.1970) inscribed to performers Jackie Curtis and Ritta Redd - further reflecting Neel's interest in various creative and avant-garde communities. Also on view is related archival material that illuminates the lives and accomplishments of the individuals depicted by Neel and their surrounding historical and cultural contexts. These subjects, united here through a connecting thread of difference, demonstrate the breadth of Neel's work and the unfettered scope of her humanist vision.

As Als writes in his essay for the accompanying publication:

"When she died in 1984, Neel had a great number of masterpieces to her credit, a galaxy of masterpieces, I would say, that bear witness to the terror we usually turn away from, having no language for it, namely alienation, disconnect, love. [...] As an artist, Neel gave so many people their name - the right to their name. So doing, she told us that no person is fixed; we have as many names as the lies we tell, the truths we live. In my dreams of a glittering gay world… it never occurred to me that that universe wasn't about inclusion; my imagination already included me. But Neel's paintings offered something definitive and real, something larger than 'identity.' She seemed to be saying in canvas after canvas that there was no word or image that could equal those fleeting moments of joy - of connectedness - that bound her not only to her subjects, but to painting itself, that solitary act that she performed in front of other people."

The exhibition is accompanied by an expansive catalogue, published by David Zwirner Books. Edited and with a text by Als, the volume includes newly commissioned scholarship on the artist by Alex Fialho, Evan Garza, and Wayne Koestenbaum.