Text – Video via Nowness
Where is rebellion sought when your early memories are shaped by the creative anarchy of the older generation? For artist Elizabeth Neel, as the granddaughter of pioneering American figurative artist Alice Neel, her passage into the art world could have been predetermined by lineage. Yet, growing up in direct contact with revered paintings and portraiture, and the privileged bohemian circles that came with it, the art world was marred by a sense of conformity – unappealing and predictable, where it might otherwise present a chance to break away.
Directed by filmmaker – and brother – Andrew Neel, Limb After Limb profiles Elizabeth Neel through her tempered spontaneity, her fascination with dark subject matter, and the unconventional family that defined her upbringing. Exploring the state of confliction attached to the pursuit of art when born into it, she finds a paradoxical sense of rebellion through order, as a balancing force in her life and artistic approach.
“Digging out the connection between the person and the work was cathartic. Not least because I shared her experience. Our slobby, bohemian-meets-over-privileged-WASP quagmire of an upbringing was actually elucidating! The tension between chaos and control molded my sister and it is directly displayed on the canvas.”
Channeling the emotion and repulsion of confronting the grotesque into a mutual inexplicability that arises in her art, Neel’s attraction to unpredictability is disrupted by intuitive mark-making that allows her to regain control over the outcome. Through her deep understanding of the polarities that frame her experiences, Limb After Limb reflects on the many reasons that drive people to paint, and Neel’s inherent need to build her own definition of freedom outside familiarity.
