Richard Gibbs 1954

Alice Neel’s raw, honest portrait of Richard Gibbs is, like much of her work, about really looking. I imagine Neel mixing and remixing shades of peach, pink, and muddy grey, trying to capture the specific pallor of his skin. She’s unafraid to leave the marks of her searching visible—those visible brushstrokes, the slightly awkward angle of his limbs. There's a very specific kind of light here, and she's trying to get it right. The painting has this provisional feel, like a sketch, but it’s also so assured. It reminds me of other portraits by painters like Marlene Dumas or even Lucian Freud, who push the boundaries of likeness in search of something deeper. These painters, including Neel, seem to be in pursuit of a kind of truth, not just about what someone looks like, but about what it feels like to be them, in that moment. I imagine painting this must have been an intimate exchange.