Kenneth Dolittle 1931

Alice Neel made this portrait of Kenneth Dolittle, with paint, at some point in her career. I imagine her, brush in hand, circling around her subject, trying to get a handle on his essence. What’s so compelling about Neel is how she used paint to dig into the human psyche. Look at how she's rendered Dolittle's face. His gaze is intense, a little unnerving. Those thin, almost bloodless lips and piercing eyes seem to see right through you, don't they? The color is so thin, like watercolor. She really allows the form to exist with only a few brushstrokes. It's as if she's stripped away all the layers of social nicety to reveal something raw and vulnerable. Neel was part of an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time. She took cues from artists who came before her and, in turn, inspired countless others with her unflinching vision. Painting, for Neel, was a form of embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.