Centoizing Alice Neel, by Elane Gutterman

Centoizing Alice Neel
            “People Come First,” Metropolitan Museum of Art
            March 22 - August 1, 2021
                                               

Alice Neel said, I am a collector of souls.
                        She painted the famous Andy Warhol
                        so we could see him fizzled and battle scarred.
                        She painted the local cabdriver Abdul Rahman
                        so we could get caught in his bearded dignity 
                        and the net of his chest hair.
                        She painted Margaret Evans Pregnant,
                        bare belly bulging with imminent birth,
                        ready to face hard labor. 
                         
Alice Neel said, I have this overweening interest in humanity.
                        She painted David Bourdon and Gregory
                               Battcock
                        in times still fraught for their relationship.
                        David is tightly pressed into a business suit,
                        while Gregory lounges legs splayed in his
                               underwear, 
                        with red socks signaling no stops or caution 
                               needed.
 
Alice Neel lived for decades in Harlem.
                        She painted Two Girls, Spanish Harlem
                        and The Black Boys.
                        Their somber eyes insist -- we matter, our hopes
                               matter,
                        don’t leave us behind.
                        Jeff Neal, surviving brother, at the Met 
                        for a private viewing, reflects,
                         “she was looking at two ghetto children from 
                                uptown 
                        and bringing out the beauty in us.”
 
Alice Neel said, when I painted, I was completely and utterly
      myself.
                        She painted her nude Self Portrait when she
                               was eighty.
                        No apologies for her sagging belly
                        and all it had stomached.                   
 
Alice Neel said, the more experience you have, the better it is...
unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far.

Elane Gutterman

Elane Gutterman, a health researcher, began her poetry journey about a decade ago. Her poems have appeared in Kelsey Review, Patterson Literary Review, U.S. 1 Summer Fiction Issue and The New Verse News. Tides of Expectation, her first poetry book, will be published by Kelsay Press in 2022.
​