Remembering the indomitable figurative painter Alice Neel, born 121 years ago today. Over the course of her six-decade career, the New York based artist turned her psychologically shrewd gaze to everybody from her family, friends, lovers and neighbours to artists, psychologists, students, salesmen, as well as anonymous strangers. As such, “Neel’s paintings exist as an unparalleled chronicle of New York personalities”, in the words of Victoria Miro gallery. Here she is captured by Sam Brody in her studio, surrounded by a number of her remarkably rendered protagonists.
