Alice Neel

These portraits by Alice Neel and Roger Shimomura employ very different approaches.

Using bold brushstrokes and deliberately leaving sections of the canvas unpainted, Neel

creates a directness and sense of emotional connection with her portrayal of the artist

Nancy Selvage. Shimomura, in contrast, depicts himself as a cartoonish caricature of a Japanese warrior. Working in vibrant colors and adding accessories such as a sword and wig, he raises issues of racist stereotypes.

–Wai Yee Chiong, curator of Asian art

In the 1960s, when abstraction was the dominant style in art, Alice Neel continued to work in a figurative mode, creating portraits of her friend and fellow artist Nancy Selvage. Using expressionistic line and vivid color, Neel captures the particular idiosyncrasies of her subject. Characteristically, she left sections of the canvas unpainted, thereby giving the portrait a sense of immediacy. After years of neglect, Neel gained recognition in her later years, as the women’s movement generated interest in the personal subject matter of her paintings.