Jackie Curtis and Ritta Redd

1970

Alice Neel

(American, 1900–1984)

Culture

America

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

Framed: 154.3 x 108.9 cm (60 3/4 x 42 7/8 in.); Unframed: 152.4 x 106.4 cm (60 x 41 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2009.345

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

229A Contemporary

Did You Know?

Jackie Curtis, seen at right, was credited with pioneering the glam rock style of the 1970s.

Description

Jackie Curtis (on the right), was a performer, writer, and singer, active in New York City’s downtown counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, and part of Andy Warhol’s creative orbit. In this double portrait Alice Neel depicts Curtis, who was gender nonconforming, together with Ritta Redd, a friend with whom Curtis sometimes collaborated. Typical for Neel, the personalities of her sitters are evident in this painting. Notably, Curtis takes center stage in the image, leaning in front of and casting a shadow over Redd. Neel once commented that when “portraits are good art they reflect the culture, the time and many other things.”