Alice Neel (American, 1900–1984). <em>John I. H. Baur</em>, 1974. Oil on canvas, 45 1/2 x 38in. (115.6 x 96.5cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Hartley and Richard Neel, 1993.161. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1993.161_PS20.jpg)

Alice Neel (American, 1900–1984). John I. H. Baur, 1974. Oil on canvas, 45 1/2 x 38in. (115.6 x 96.5cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Hartley and Richard Neel, 1993.161. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1993.161_PS20.jpg)

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This man reminds me of Jimmy Carter.

I can see that a bit in the face and his clothing. You may have already found the label, but this piece is a portrait of Jack Baur who was head of the Museum's department of Painting and Sculpture from 1936-1952. It is by Alice Neel, a pioneer Modernist woman painter and many of her faces have that slouchey look!

Do you know anything about John Baur, the man in this Alice Neel painting?

John I. H. Baur directed the Brooklyn Museum’s Department of Painting and Sculpture from 1936 to 1952. He was a scholar and curator of American Art in particular. After working at this museum, he was a curator and the director of the Whitney Museum in Manhattan. She has shown him here in his suit -- ready for the business of art and museum work!

Baur and Neel were friends. He even gave a speech in her honor at a memorial service after her death.

Could you tell me more about this portrait?

In this wonderful portrait of our museum's late curator of Paintings and Sculpture, John Baur, Neel uses thick layers of paint and wobbly outlines to imbue this formal genre with a more intimate gaze.

That makes sense, considering the fact that Neel and Baur were close friends, but this intimacy is a quality that permeates all of Neel's work, whether she is painting celebrities or strangers. Many of her subjects were people in the art world -- curators, art historians, gallerists, critics, and others.

Was Alice Neel inspired by Otto Dix?

I can see the visual similarity in their work, and she was certainly aware of him, if not directly inspired. Neel was known for painting residents of New York (friends, art world colleagues, and people she met on the street) while attempting to capture their psychology on canvas. Dix, however, was more focused on social critique and allegory through his portraits. I think the key difference is that Neel's focus was on the individual.

Yes, good point. So cool! Thanks!

Did the person in the painting order it himself?

He actually didn't! John I. H. Baur and the artist, Alice Neel, were friends. Despite the fact that he was director of the Brooklyn Museum's Department of Painting and Sculpture from 1936 to 1952, the museum didn't actually acquire this portrait until 1993, when it was gifted by the artist's sons.

I feel as if you can almost tell they were friends by looking at the portrait. He sits so casually, despite wearing a suit!

Haha thank you!

You're welcome!

Were Alex Katz and Alice Neel married?

Katz and Neel were not married. Alex Katz married his wife and muse Ada relatively early in his career, on February 1, 1958. Neel married painter Carlos Enríquez on June 1 of 1925.

Tell us about Alice Neel.

Alice Neel lived from 1900 to 1984. Over the course of her lifetime, she witnessed a parade of avant-garde movements, from Abstract Expressionism to Conceptual Art--and refused to follow any of them. Instead, she developed a unique, expressive style of portrait painting that captured the psychology of individuals living in New York.

Neel trained at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. In the 1930s she lived in Greenwich Village, New York and enrolled as a member of the WPA (Works Progress Administration).

What style of painting is this?

Alice Neel's style of artwork is generally described as Neo-expressionism. This style of art is defined as personal and emotional, or even primitive in a way, with textural brushwork. Such emotional and color filled work developed in the 1970s and was a reaction against the popularity of Minimalism and Conceptual Art.

Thank you.

John I. H. Baur

Alice Neel

Contemporary Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Witness

John I. H. Baur, head of the Brooklyn Museum’s Department of Painting and Sculpture from 1936 to 1952, here appears seated in an interior space, perhaps his office. His body, cropped at the head and ankle, fills the frame. Alice Neel captured idiosyncrasies such as his lightly rumpled suit, wrinkled face, and veiny hands. One of her guiding principles as a portraitist was, in her words, that “every person is a new universe unique with its own laws.”

ARTIST Alice Neel, American, 1900–1984

MEDIUM Oil on canvas

Place Made: United States

DATES 1974

DIMENSIONS 45 1/2 x 38in. (115.6 x 96.5cm) frame: 48 3/4 x 40 3/4 x 1 3/4 in. (123.8 x 103.5 x 4.4 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 1993.161

CREDIT LINE Gift of Hartley and Richard Neel

PROVENANCE 1984, inherited from the artist by Hartley Neel and Richard Neel; 1993, gift of Hartley Neel and Richard Neel to the Brooklyn Museum.

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EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Witness

CAPTION Alice Neel (American, 1900–1984). John I. H. Baur, 1974. Oil on canvas, 45 1/2 x 38in. (115.6 x 96.5cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Hartley and Richard Neel, 1993.161. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1993.161_PS20.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 1993.161_PS20.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2023

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RIGHTS STATEMENT © Estate of Alice Neel

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