MARIA DUARTE picks the best and worst of a crowded year of films
Courage with her convictions
US painter ALICE NEEL remained true to her aesthetic and political principles throughout her artistic life, says Christine Lindey
PAINTING WITH INTEGRITY: (L to R) Linda Nochlin and Daisy, 1973 and Pat Whalen, 1935
JOSEPHINE BARBARO welcomes a diverse anthology of experiences by autistic women that amounts to a resounding chorus, demanding to be heard
PAUL BUHLE recommends an eminently useful book that examines the political opportunities for popular anti-fascist intervention
PETER MASON is entertained by the autobiography of Charlie Harper, one of punk’s most enduring figures
JAMIE BRITTON reaches for the sick bucket as he is forced to engorge detail after detail of the Royal Family’s wealth
STEVE JOHNSON picks his favourites from the many memorable albums of the year, and one stunning new festival
ALICE NEEL (1900-1984) was a born rebel. Early on in life, she escaped the strictures of her small Pennsylvanian home town which, she said, “was utterly beautiful in the spring but there was no-one to paint it.”
She had wanted to be an artist since childhood but as her family were not well off she felt obliged to take a secretarial course and studied art at night school while saving up for full-time study.
Once at art college, like many a good-looking and vivacious girl, she was soon seduced, married and pregnant. There followed many years of emotional highs and lows from an eventful love life.
Similar stories
JOHN GREEN welcomes a remarkable study of Mozambique’s most renowned contemporary artist
NICK MATTHEWS previews a landmark book launch taking place in Leicester next weekend
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture