Alice Neel Hot Off the Griddle

Dynamic and forward thinking, this unconventional retrospective monograph takes its cues from Alice Neel’s life and work— at once intimate, powerful, and bursting with color.

Alice Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century and a pioneer among women artists. A painter of people, landscape and still life, Neel was never fashionable or in step with avant-garde movements. “One of the reasons I painted was to catch life as it goes by,” she explained, “right hot off the griddle.”

This beautifully designed volume takes a unique approach to the exhibition catalog, highlighting Neel’s understanding of the fundamentally political nature of how we look at others, and what it means to feel seen. Long a favorite of portrait lovers, Neel has recently gained an even wider 21st-century audience appreciative of the searing candor with which she viewed the world, the depth of her humanity, and her championing of the underdog.

This beautifully produced catalog features a thoroughly modern design, as well as an essay by renowned critic Hilton Als and poetry by Daisy Lafarge.

Eleanor Nairne is Curator at Barbican Art Gallery, London, where her exhibitions include 'Lee Krasner: Living Colour' (2019), 'Basquiat: Boom for Real' (2017) and 'Imran Qureshi: Where the Shadows Are So Deep' (2016). She was previously Curator of The Artangel Collection at Tate, working with artists including Francis Alÿs, Yael Bartana, Jeremy Deller, Mike Kelley, Tony Oursler and Catherine Yass. She is a contributor to the London Review of Books, has written for magazines including frieze and is a previous Jerwood Writer in Residence.

Eleanor’s previous books with Prestel include Jean Dubuffet and Basquiat: Boom for Real!