Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Georgie Arce No. 2
Alice Neel American
Not on view
A chance encounter with Arce on a Harlem street led to Neel’s prolonged engagement with him as both a friend and a recurring subect. In the many pictures Neel made of him over the course of several years, Arce assumed a variety of poses and presented himself in numerous guises. Sometimes the resulting portraits project intimacy and warmth, at others tension and animosity. What is truth and what is playacting, though, is always difficult to determine, as in this case, where an older Arce sits confidently, legs splayed and brow furrowed. Arce holds a rubber knife in one hand, turning it in Neel’s and, by extension, the viewer’s direction. The artist remembered him holding it to her throat on occasion. "This was just fun and games," Neel said, adding, "he was a desperate little character."
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