The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 18, 2019

Jackie Curtis and Ritta Redd

1970

Alice Neel

(American, 1900-1984)

America, 20th century

Oil on canvas

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.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2009.345

© The Estate of Alice Neel

Location

229B Contemporary

Fun Fact

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

Description

Though Alice Neel’s work consisted mostly of portraiture, there is a distinctly abstract quality in her paintings due to her use of simplified forms and perspective distortion. An early example of her portraits of gay couples, Jackie Curtis and Ritta Redd portrays two regulars from Andy Warhol’s Factory. Jackie Curtis was an actor, playwright, and poet who appeared in Warhol’s films Flesh and Women in Revolt. Neel plays with expectations of gender through the figures’ postures and dress, which work against typical ideas of masculinity and femininity. The figure on the left is Ritta, not Jackie, as would be expected from the title. Neel appropriately remarked that when "portraits are good art they reflect the culture, the time and many other things."

Citations
The Department of Art History and Archaeology of Columbia University. Modern Portraits: the Self & Others: An Exhibition. New York: Columbia University, 1976. p. 117. Reproduced: p. 117, fig. 86.
Quinn, Bridget, and Lisa Congdon. Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order). San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 2017. Reproduced p. 110; mentioned pp. 111-112.
Lewison, Jeremy, Bice Curiger, and Alice Neel. Alice Neel: Painter of Modern Life. Brussels : Mercatorfonds ; Helsinki : Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, 2016. Mentioned: p. 178, cat. 52; reproduced: p. 179
Exhibition history

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (3/21/2010 - 6/13/2010), Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (7/9/2010 - 9/19/2010), and Moderna Museet, Malmö (10/10/2010 - 1/2/2011): "Alice Neel: Painted Truths", ex. cat. no. 24, p. 154-155.

Ateneum Art Museum/Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland (6/10/2016 – 10/2/2016), Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, The Netherlands (11/5/2016 – 2/12/2017), Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France (3/4/2017 – 9/17/2017), and Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (10/13/2017 – 1/14/2018): "Alice Neel – Painter of Modern Life"

Alice Neel: Painted Truths. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (organizer) (March 21-June 13, 2010); Whitechapel Art Gallery (July 9-September 19, 2010); Moderna Museet (October 10, 2010-January 2, 2011).

Alice Neel - Painter of Modern Life. Ateneum Art Museum/Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland (June 10-October 2, 2016); Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, The Netherlands (November 5, 2016-February 12, 2017); Fondation Vincent van Gogh-Arles (March 4-September 17, 2017); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (October 13, 2017-January 14, 2018).

Alice Neel: Painter as Radical Humanist. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 15-July 11, 2021).

Source URL: https://cmaweb23-bbn-2.clevelandart.org/art/2009.345