In honor of Women’s History Month, Friends of Sims Memorial Library, Hammond Regional Arts Center and the Department of Fine and Performing Arts are sponsoring another “Let’s Talk: Art Lecture Series.”

Speakers include graduating seniors in art history Heather Burkett and Betty Lou Starnes, and faculty members Dr. Irene Nero, Jeffrey Mickey and Ben Diller.

Heather Burkett gave her lecture on the American portrait painter Alice Neel, who Burkett said was underappreciated in her time. The Pennsylvania native, born in 1900, struggled her whole life with depression, an obstacle that showed through in her art work.

“She has been given in her lifetime and beyond the title of collector of souls, due to the unique approach she took when painting her sitters,” said Burkett in her lecture.   

Neel’s early life was challenging as the fourth of five children. Her mother claimed she was a descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and also struggled with depression. Her father was a clerk for the Pennsylvania Railroad. At 21, Neel went to Pennsylvania School of Design for Women, her sole source of art education, and then graduated at the age of 24.

“Her art is psychologically driven on a great scale,” Burkett said. “The idea of everything happening, or no writer to write it, or no artist to paint it troubled her tremendously. These pieces of her young life molded her psychologically into the person she would ultimately become. She wanted to bring truth to life no matter the risk and no matter how shocking.”

She found inspiration through people who had built lives for themselves in which she admired. Some of her “sitters,” or models, include poet Frank O’Hara and Andy Warhol. Neel found Frank O’Hara to be especially interesting because of his position at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, N.Y., and the fact he was also an art critic.

When Neel met O’Hara in the 60s, she painted two portraits of him. One was a profile view with a more romantic feel to it due to the bright, light colors used. In the second portrait, she painted him from the front with a more grotesque look, indicating that Neel was aware of his alcoholism and his resolve to die before the age of 40.

“For Neel, presenting O’Hara’s face in profile was rare. It did not allow access to the eyes for his emotions. Only her past lovers had been recorded from this angle before. Some say it gave Neel the opportunity to emphasize the distinctive curve of O’Hara’s nose, which she characterized extensively. The second painting, Neel stripped him of the nobility of the last portrait, and O’Hara was portrayed as a savage,” Burkett said.

Famous for his tomato cans and banana screen prints, Warhol changed the face of the art world to his own in the 60s and 70s. When the pair met in 1963, Warhol told her “Oh, you’re that woman who paints those wonderful portraits. I want a portrait and I’ll put you in movie.” Neel never reached back out to him because she was terrified of being on camera. It wasn’t until 1970 that they met again. Warhol allowed Neel to paint him without his wig and with his scars from a 1968 assassination attempt showing on his chest.

“When he suggested to her that she could paint him with his scars she admired him for it. Her paintings of men are simply human and vulnerable. It was when Warhol shut his eyes in the portrait that he allowed the viewer to see what he chose not to see. This highlighted his acceptance of being vulnerable. Such self-exposure shows how he understood Neel’s artistic purpose and he sacrificed himself for the cause,” Burkett said of Warhol in her lecture.

The life of Alice Neel is a truly inspirational tale. Burkett described her a woman who broke the rules of portraiture in order to break the expectations of women in her time period.

“I do find inspiration from her life because I do think that she went through a great amount of struggle in her life. She received no recognition throughout her life, but she didn’t give up. She kept going. I look to that as inspirational,” said Burkett.

The next presentation in the “Lets Talk: Art Lecture Series” will be on April 4 at 5 p.m. at the Hammond Regional Arts Center.