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Alice Neel

Richard in the Era of the Corporation

I think it was Shelley who said, "A poem is a moment's monument." Now, a painting is that, plus the fact that it is also the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the age. You see, I think one of the things I should be given credit for is that at the age of eighty-two, I still produce definitive pictures with the feel of the era.

The artist, 1982

Neel portrayed specific people and also described their times, the Zeitgeist, in portraits that span a period of more than fifty years. She saw the 1970s as a time when individuals were increasingly subjugated to the power of corporations. She particularly worried about her son, who was then working as a corporate attorney; here, she shows him literally backed into a corner. The mirror provides Neel with the opportunity to make a double portrait.