The Faun
Created by Emera Gregor on Mon, 04/01/2024 - 18:54
This timeline provides sociohistorical context behind Alice Neel’s 1972 John Perreault. This piece depicts a naked John Perreault, art critic, poet, artist, delicately gazing at the painter and/or audience.
Timeline
Chronological table
| Date | Event | Created by | Associated Places | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 to 1970 |
The Sexual Revolution Protest for Sexual Liberation The event that I chose to be connected to the artist, Alice Neel, is the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s. The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s challenged traditional feelings and values concerning sex and sexual behaviors that were acceptable in society. With the revolution, sexual liberation increased acceptance of sex outside of the traditional husband/wife relationship. It also opened a space for women to embrace sexuality for them, rather than have it placed on them by men while at the same time being treated as used or dirty for engaging in sex. The normalization of the birth control pill and discovery of penicillin partially gave way for such changes. In this same era, the female body was being sexualized less and women were able to reject traditional femininity and modesty in favor of more comfortable, more traditionally masculine clothing. The Sexual Revolution, of course, didn’t just change the norms for women. While the normalization of pornography and masturbation was liberating for all, these were especially geared towards men, evidenced by the evolution of sex-ed videos in which these things are talked about in the boys’ videos but almost never in the girls’. The Sexual Revolution also directly tied in with the Gay Liberation Movement, promoting the normalization of a de-heterosexual centralization of relationships. |
Emera Gregor | ||
| 1972 |
The Male Nude The Male Nude For the second event, I chose to describe the The Male Nude exhibition that Alice Neel and John Perreault worked on together. As both were notable figures in the art world, they knew of each other before they met, having respect for the other’s work and values. While this wasn’t their first meeting, (Perreault was assigned to do a review of Neel’s work for ARTnews where he worked with her for the first time, roughly 1968), this was important for Perreault as it was his first exhibition as a curation at the School of Visual Arts. Perreault was making a point to be subversive and challenging to the norms of the art world, especially in what was considered tasteful and acceptable. He recalled in an article that he wanted to show Neel’s Joe Gould, specifically because no one else had ever shown it before as it was considered too controversial. To add to the controversial nature of this exhibition, it was also considered a bit presumptuous for the curator of an exhibition to show a painting that he posed for while in the midst of curating. The Male Nude as a 1972 exhibition emphasized the male body in the realm of nude art, which is predominately made up of female bodies. It is especially fitting that it came after the Sexual Revolution and Gay Liberation Movements of the 1960s and 70s, allowing for the male nude to be sexually appealing to both women and men when previously women were told to ignore their feelings of sexual desire and homosexual feelings frowned upon. |
Emera Gregor | ||
| 1 Dec 1989 |
The Day Without Art Sun God: Shrouded for the Day Without Art event The final event to be mentioned is the Day Without Art. Beginning on December 1st, 1989, the Day Without Art was a response to the AIDS crisis, which had been devastating the lives of many individuals and families as 10,911 people in the United States died in 1988 alone. It was created as a way to make the public aware that this was a wide-spread issue, not something that just faced gay men (as many believed at the time). It was also meant to show that it could inspire positive choices to better the lives of others and change the course of the epidemic. Originally, the Day Without Art was conducted as Visual AIDS, a group created in New York, contacted museums and art organizations nationwide, inviting them to cover their artwork, representing the artwork that will never be made/seen due to the deaths of artists from the epidemic. Now, it has become known as the Day With(out) Art as it has morphed into a day of showcasing art that recognizes and promotes artists living with HIV/AIDS. Either way it is performed, the Day With(out) Art is still breaking down barriers, promoting representation and activism, and destigmatizing HIV/AIDS in a world that punishes people because they contracted an illness that is associated with sex. |
Emera Gregor | ||
| 1 Spring 2024 |
My Docent StoryThe reason that I offered that background concerning those three events is because it helps me to explain what John Perreault was doing socially/culturally and/or politically when Alice Neel created it. Alice Neel was a humanist and a feminist who chose to directly combat the male gaze that perpetrated women as sexual seductresses and objects for male pleasure. Alice Neel was inspired by and used the impact of the Sexual Revolution as a way to show people's nude body outside of a sexual sphere. When women and men are given a space to embrace sexuality, they are also equally able to reject it. Therefore, Neel was able to do what she became famous for and use nude images to depict people not in a sexual light, but in a real, human way. Without knowledge of the Sexual Revolution, one may not realize that Neel was shedding a sexual nature in her nudes instead of promoting one. The 1972 exhibition, The Male Nude, showcased the closeness in the relationship between Neel and Perreault as he was able to just “call her up” when he wanted her input on curating the exhibition. From that phone call, the decision to make Alice Neel’s John Perreault was made due to Neel’s desire to not let Perreault’s exhibition be the only one without new paintings to showcase. From the way Perreault describes the interaction, one is able to appreciate Neel’s goals for the image and the choice in Perreault’s posing. There is a friendliness and respect between the two, evidenced by the kind gaze and comfortable, relaxed pose. Perreault also joked that, “My penis came out much larger in the painting,” playfully suggesting that perhaps Neel did that as a favor or as a sign of friendship as when she paints people “she could be quite devastating.” He also felt quite appreciative of her viewing him as a faun. Knowledge of The Male Nude gives a large amount of insight behind the making of John Perreault, the relationship between subject and artist, and the realness that Neel was known for that is exuding throughout the painting. John Perreault was an early member of Visual AIDS, credited by member Robert Atkins as having the idea to do a day without art. Therefore, without John Perreault, the way in which the Day Without Art was (and sometimes still is) celebrated may not have ever come about nor would it have evolved into the celebration of art that it is now. Knowing that he was a strong advocate for gay rights, along with the fact that he was openly gay, and proper education regarding health adds to Neel’s painting as she is also advocating for sexual freedom. As mentioned prior, Neel was a humanist, hoping to paint him as he was. During a time where being openly gay was strongly discouraged, Neel was trying to convey some of the same things as Perreault was through the Day Without Art: be yourself, unabashedly. “Alice Neel.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Neel. “Day without Art.” Visual AIDS, visualaids.org/events/detail/day-without-art-1989. Accessed 1 Apr. 2024. “Day without Art.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Jan. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_Without_Art.
Escoffier, Jeffrey. “Alice Neel: A Painter of Her Time.” Gotham Center for New York City History, 16 July 2021, www.gothamcenter.org/blog/alice-neel-a-painter-of-her-time. “Exhibition Galleries.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 23 Mar. 2021, www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2021/alice-neel/exhibition-galleries “Exhibitions.” Alice Neel, 7 Sept. 2023, www.aliceneel.com/exhibitions/. “John Perreault.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Dec. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perreault. Lesso, Rosie. “Alice Neel: Portraiture and the Female Gaze.” TheCollector, 4 Nov. 2021, www.thecollector.com/alice-neel-female-gaze/. Leydorf, Mark. “Artful Warriors.” POZ, 30 Aug. 2013, www.poz.com/article/visual-AIDS-anniversary-23874-4289. Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. "Gay Liberation Front pickets Time, Inc." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1970 Neel, Alice. Portrait of John Perreault. 1972. Newhall, Edith. “Neel Life Stories.” New York Magazine, 19 June 2000, nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/3409/. Palmor, Lauren. “Naked Truth: The Radical Candor of Alice Neel’s Nudes.” Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 31 Mar. 2022, www.famsf.org/stories/naked-truth-the-radical-candor-of-alice-neels-nudes. Perreault, John. “Alice Neel’s Family Values.” Artopia, 14 May 2007, www.artsjournal.com/artopia/2007/05/alice_neels_family_values.html. “Sexual Revolution in 1960s United States.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Mar. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_revolution_in_1960s_United_States. Solomon, Tessa. “Radical Realist Alice Neel Helped Redefine Portraiture in Postwar New York.” Art in America, ARTnews.com, 26 Apr. 2021, www.artnews.com/feature/alice-neel-who-was-she-why-was-she-important-1234590346/ Saint-Phalle, Niki de. Sun God. 1983. https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb0718307. Accessed 1 April 2024. Staff, Harriet. “Rest in Peace, John Perreault, 1937-2015 By...” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 10 Sept. 2015, www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2015/09/rest-in-peace-john-perrea.... Yared, R. “AIDS Worldwide.” AIDS Worldwide, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12315504/#:~:text=In%20the%20US%2C%2032%2C399%20AIDS%20cases%20were%20reported,a%20cumulative%20total%20since%201981%20of%2046%2C134%20deaths. Accessed 2 Apr. 2024. |
Emera Gregor |