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The Family
Alice Neel American
Not on view
Two works titled The Family from 1927, are among the relatively few works on paper to survive a devastating fire set by Kenneth Doolittle in 1934. These watercolors speak to Neel’s fascination with the home as a stage for some of life’s most private dramas, both physical and emotional. They feature Neel and her first daughter, Santillana, who would die from diphtheria in late 1927. In one, they appear with Santillana’s father, Carlos Enríquez, and in the other they are joined by Neel’s parents and brother. In this work the artist peels away the facade of the house to expose the fraught psychological dynamics of her own family as well as the gendered division of labor common to most families.
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