NEW YORK, WHERE PAINTER ALICE NEEL lived for most of her life, was more than her home. It was her career, her passion, her commitment and her most returned to subject. She was obsessed with the city – and not for the glamour of Park Lane or bright lights of Broadway – but for the everyday realities of marginalised residents in poor neighbourhoods.
Throughout her career, which spanned some 60 years and much of the twentieth century, Neel championed the underdog, often committing to canvas those rarely, if ever, portrayed in art, saying “I love to paint people who have been torn to shreds by the rat race in New York.” Her paintings gave overlooked people dignity and humanity – and the
