Rosalyn Drexler on Alice Neel’s Truth-Telling Brush

‘When her mother died, she stopped talking. What is there to say when all is lost?’

BY Rosalyn Drexler in Frieze Masters , Influences | 29 AUG 18

Alice Neel, *Marisol*, 1981, oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm. Courtesy: The Estate of Alice Neel and Victoria Miro, London

This is a portrait of one of my friends. Hands linked in her lap, she is holding herself together. Her face is troubled (no longer the silent beauty). When her mother died, she (the child) stopped talking. What is there to say when all is lost? Alice continues painting. She wields her truth-telling brush. The unhappy future is revealed.

Published in Frieze Masters, issue 7, 2018, with the title ‘Artist's Artists’.

ROSALYN DREXLER

Rosalyn Drexler is an artist and writer based in New York, USA. In the past year, she has had a solo show at Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, and her work was included in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Grey Art Gallery, New York, NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, UAE, and Musée Maillol, Paris, France. She will have a solo presentation with Garth Greenan Gallery in ‘Spotlight’ at Frieze Masters, London, in October.

Rosalyn Drexler on Alice Neel’s Truth-Telling Brush

‘When her mother died, she stopped talking. What is there to say when all is lost?’

Rosalyn Drexler

Alice Neel

Artists' Artists

Frieze Masters 7

Influences

Frieze Masters 2018

Frieze London 2018