Alice Neel: Portrait of a Lady

Nina P. West
Forbes 09.17.07


Alice Neel, a 20th-century American painter from Spanish Harlem, turned out to be the breakout star of Christie's recent contemporary art auction. Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat usually grab the headlines at superstar-focused auctions, but savvy insiders were paying special attention to Alice Neel's portrait, "Roberta Johnson Roensch." They predicted it would take off. They were right. The portrait of a wide-eyed young bride sold for nearly half a million dollars at Christie's Sept. 10 auction of Post War and Contemporary Art. The painting, on the auction block for the first time since it was created in the '40s, sold to a private U.S. collector after strong bidding for $445,000. It was expected to fetch between $50,000 and $70,000. It also set a new record for any Alice Neel painting at auction. The previous record, for the portrait "Peter B. Kaplan" was $216,000, sold at Sotheby's in 2006. Alice Neel worked in relative obscurity most of her adult life. She lived in Spanish Harlem, where her friends and neighbors became the subjects of her portraits. Her art often reflected her personal life, which was complicated and at times tragic. Says her eldest son, Richard Neel, "We always had this dream that she would be recognized and she would be able to get some money from her work. It really did not work out that way when we were children." Late in her life, she did gain some broad recognition, but nothing like the applause her works receive today.
Artfact Analysis:
Why has it taken the auction market so long to accept Alice Neel into the contemporary art "major leagues?" Lack of exposure at auction may be one factor. Ms. Neel had a lover who slashed 60 of her paintings and burned 300 of her drawings. The market can hardly support an artist with relatively few works to sell. Her works also lack easy definition. Collectors of American Art don't consider Alice Neel part of the Ash Can School or the American Modernist School, and the glitzy works by Abstract Expressionists attract the Post-War collectors. Ms. Neel's paintings are simply off the radar of most collectors. The record-breaking price for the portrait "Roberta Johnson Roensch" does not change the entire market for her work. Use caution when assuming that all Alice Neel paintings have suddenly quadrupled in value. For many years, the average price at auction for a Neel portrait has hovered around $50,000. The art market is finally catching up to what scholars and museums have known for years, but, like so many artists, the quality of Ms. Neel's work can be uneven, so choose wisely.
For a larger perspective on Alice Neel, read the 374-page biography by art historian Pamela Allara entitled Pictures of People: Alice Neel's American Portrait Gallery. The 2007 film Documentary Alice Neel by her grandson Andrew Neel is also a wonderful personal study of the artist's life. For Alice Neel auction records over the past 15 years, consult Artfact.com for art and antiques with over 20 million auction results.