A Case Study Of Alice Neel: An American Artist In The 20th Century

Alice Neel's artistic status has not attracted much mainstream attention in the development of modern and contemporary art in 20 th century,especially in China.She should have been far better than her current popularity,and The study of Neel is a critical intervention in contemporary society and contemporary art.Under the scouring wave of popular art in the twentieth century,not only it didn‘t drown out Neel's figurative art(mainly Portrait Art),but also made her "realistic expressionist" artistic style more prominent and realized the unique "Neelism".Through the analysis of Neel's five artistic stages,namely the "early works" stage,the "psychological trauma" stage,the "Greenwich" stage,the "Spanish Harlem" series stage,and the "New York Art World" series stage,this paper studies the uniqueness and complexity of Neel's art around the pathological characters expressed in Neel's artistic creation,the radical political tendencies the documentary artistic concept,and the insistence on figurative art.The artistic creation,female identity,maternal consciousness,and proletarian stance are the multiple concerns of Alice Neel's self-construction as an artist.She used her artistic career to confirm that "art is a form of history",from her works not only reflect her personal life and emotional development,but also appreciate the political,economic,cultural environment and social problems of the twentieth century in the United States.To some extent,her images exposed the original historical appearance more directly than other written materials,developed the historical documents of that era,and resonated the essence of her history.In Neel's words,"the whole 20 th century was a struggle between communism and capitalism,which left anxiety ‘scars' on ordinary people”.The sympathy for oppressed groups such as women and proletariat presented in her works can provide some warnings and new ideas for the development of contemporary art.This research on Neel is based on the intersection and complementarity of sociology and aesthetics,making up for the single research direction of the form and content of artistic works.It can be said that Neel is a synthesis,her value is not the workpiece itself,but her personal fascination,new aesthetic standards,and social functions of artistic creation that arise in the process of artistic production.