ALICE NEEL E A BEAT GENERATION
"Pull My Daisy"
Durante a sua longa vida activa de pintora, Alice Neel atravessou sucessivos contextos das artes norte-americanas, que foram sustentando o itinerário à margem do mainstream abstraccionista; foi associada a conjunturas e movimentos diversos, mas mantendo sempre uma indestrutível singularidade: aqui foco-me na relação com a boémia Beat.
Depois dos anos de formação, da aventura cubana e das dificuldades pessoais que se lhe seguiram, de miséria e internamentos, viveu com o apoio do financiamento público criado durante a Grande Depressão, desde 1933 até ao fim do WPA (Works Progress Administration) decidido pelo Congresso em 1943 - um apoio reduzido atribuído pela secção de "pintura de cavalete": não pintou murais em espaços públicos, ao contrário da maioria, e a sua produção de cenas urbanas, vistas de Nova Iorque e retratos não se identifica com o estilo do realismo social dominante, apesar das suas posições políticas de esquerda, e do foco na população desfavorecida, em especial os porto-riquenhos de Spanish Harlem.
Até meados dos anos 1950 continuou a contar com meios da assistência pública.
Na década de 50 era uma figura conhecida da boémia intelectual de Greenwich Village e passou a frequentar The Club (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Club_(fine_arts), sede da “escola de Nova Iorque”, lugar de debates e bailes. Para conhecer artistas, disse. A participação no filme de Robert Frank e Alfred Leslie (pintor q conheceu no Club) vai associá-la à Beat Generation.
A intervenção no filme é reduzida, quase uma figurante, na pele de uma avó tradicional sentada no sofá (também se senta ao piano) entre as presenças indisciplinadas de Alan (sic) Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlofsky, Larry Rivers (pintor), etc.
" I looked like a conventional American type. I had a hat then, and orange gloves and an orange scarf. I went [to the first day of shooting] and there was Allen Ginsberg. So I said, “Oh, are you taking the part of Allen Ginsberg?” And he said, “No I am Allen Ginsberg.”.’ — Alice Neel on her experience filming Pull My Daisy with Allen Ginsberg in 1959. (https://www.davidzwirner.com/.../at-home-alice-neel-in... )
"Alice Neel (1900-1984), American painter – and memorable participant in the classic Beat Generation film, Pull My Daisy – (she plays the role of the Bishop’s Mother, art dealer, Richard Bellamy plays the Bishop), was born on this day. <sic !!!>
Alfred Leslie (co-producer) – “I first met Alice in 1945 at some party and she asked me to come pose for her. She said I looked like a faun because I have pointy ears. I loved Alice and thought she was a wise and funny and very courageous person. And when I thought of somebody for this part who was matronly but also had an edge the first person I thought of was Alice”
For most of the twenty-eight minutes of the film, Neel simply sits on the couch. She got twenty-five dollars a day for appearing in the film but the notoriety it gave her (at the time, indeed, for much of her life, she was a “painter’s painter”, less a successful money-making artist) was incalculable." (A.G. Project)
O retrato:
"Neel met the celebrated American writer and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) in 1959 on the set of Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie’s film Pull My Daisy, in which they both appeared alongside other Beat poets and artists.
In this work (painted by Neel from memory after seeing Ginsberg perform with Dr. Timothy Leary in 1966) the poet sits cross-legged next to a glowing candle, his torso and open-mouthed face surrounded by abstract, orb-like forms.
The composition mimics the gritty, improvisational, and often frenetic style of poetry that Ginsberg and the Beats were known for, and speaks to the hallucinatory quality of their performances at the time."
Continuou amiga de Allen Ginsberg, que retratou em 1966, a partir de fotografias de um cerimónia com o Dr. Timothy Leary, famoso propagandista do LSD. Não é dos melhores retratos...
After Alice Neel died in 1984, Allen Ginsberg read his poem "White Shroud" poem "White Shroud," originally written for
his mother, at her 1985 memorial service at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
O FILME:
16 mm film, in black and white 26 minutos.
Directed by Alfred Leslie and Robert Frank
Adapted by Jack Kerouac from the third act of his play Beat Generation
Narrator: Jack Kerouac; Music: David Amram
"Alice Neel appears in the film alongside other leading lights of the contemporary New York art, music, literature and photography scene. The film exudes a spirit of friendship, infectious fun and improvisation, but was in fact carefully planned and rehearsed by its two directors, Alfred Leslie and Robert Frank. Off-screen, Jack Kerouac delivers an impromptu narration over the top of previously shot and edited scenes, telling the deceptively rambling story of a gathering of friends in a New York apartment"
"Associating with Andy Warhol and the Beat Generation, Neel tended to exist on the peripheries of society. Now seen from a contemporary perspective, when human interaction becomes increasingly mediated, her work seems to be able to open up a direct and accessible conversation about what happens when one person encounters another.
Against a tendency in much of the celebrated art of the last century to remove the messiness of human existence, Neel’s work seems to strive for a more embracing world-view. To borrow from one of Neel’s close friends, poet Kenneth Fearing, the portraits seem to say: “I forgive you, to put it simply, for being alive, and pardon you, in short, for being you.” in "Alice Neel / The Subject and Me", Jul - Oct 2016 Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh.
Ao tempo de PULL MY DAISY ocorrem algumas mudanças importantes na vida de Alice Neel: o fotógrafo Sam Brody sai de casa em 1958, mas "will renains a part of her life and off e on through the mid 60's" (cat. 2000). O psicólogo (terapeuta, psicanalista?) Anthony Sterrett recomenda-lhe mais determinação na carreira. Logo a seguir "ataca" o poeta e crítico Frank O'Hara, do MoMA, que tb conheceu no "Abstract Artist Club" na década de 50: pinta dois retratos, o segundo é reproduzido na ARTnews.
Em outubro de 62 a mesma revista inclui um primeiro grande perfil, pelo crítico Hubert Crehan: "o primeiro a estabelecer o seu estatuto como importante pintor contemporâneo" (Phoebe Hoban p. 253). No mesmo ano troca Spanish Harlem pela West 107th Street, perto da esquina da Broadway, onde viverá até ao fim.
Nas décadas de 1960-70, a Pop abre caminhos para os "New Realists" e crescem os movimentos feministas. O retrato de Warhol é de 1970, exposto logo na 4ª individual na Graham Gallery e a foto de ambos na inauguração sai no The Village Voice. Pinta outros retratos da gente da Factory: Gerard Malanga em 69. É um novo contexto.
"Now in her early sixties, Neel was no longer the Bohemian femme fatale, but she was still a feisty radical artist, and the countercultural renaissance of the sixties provided her with the perfect backdrop for her own long-held predilections. The era was a celebration of the personal freedom Neel had fought for for years. As the decade unfolded, with its political and sexual revolution, from its bawdy experimentation to its idealistic activism, Neel, always ahead of the curve, was finally in sync with the Zeitgeist. The obdurate nonconformist was at last coming into her own." (Hoban p.254)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário