Over the course of her career, Alice Neel was dedicated to an incredibly personal approach to portraiture, depicting people from all races, classes, and walks of life. Nancy and Olivia, is a lithograph made by master printer Eleanor Ettinger under Neel's supervision, based on a painting of the same name. The work depicting the artist's daughter-in-law, captures a feeling of terrified hyper-vigilance mixed with self-doubt, an emotion that likely strikes a chord with many new parents. An interest in mothers and children is a dominant theme in Neel's work. Far from the saccharine images of the Madonna, her mothers are honest and unrelenting. Neel said, "I have tried to assert the dignity and eternal importance of the human being."

For most of her career, Neel was completely out of step with the prevailing art trends. As the art world embraced Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Minimalism, she remained dedicated to representational painting. Neel only began to receive official art world recognition in her seventies when she was championed by feminist art historians.

Source: DMAC News, May Jun Jul Aug 2022