Alice Neel

Alice Neel was one of the great portrait painters of the 20th century. She reinvented the genre of portraiture by expressing the inner landscape of her varied sitters, among them Andy Warhol, Annie Sprinkle, Bella Abzug, and Allen Ginsberg. Painting a diverse cross-section of humanity, from Communist Party leaders to art world personalities to her neighbors in Spanish Harlem, Neel created a body of work that serves as a social document of New York and America in the 20th Century. The film tells the story of Neel's life, exploring the struggles she faced as a woman artist, a single mother, and a painter who defied convention.

"The fascinating documentary Alice Neel illuminates history while also demonstrating how an artist’s style reveals his or her personality." (Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times)

"[It's] more than a mere biography of an important 20th-century artist: It's also an intimate portrait of a family member that questions whether or not 'great artist' and 'good parent' can ever be combined in the same person." (Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide)