'Neel’s queer subjects… are filled with a kind of grace that is not sanctimonious and often dipped in irony. As silent as some of Neel’s portraits of queer citizens can seem, they speak. Indeed, Neel’s pictures can sometimes feel like conversations between painter and subject over what a terrible and human desire it is to want to belong.'
See works by Alice Neel as part of Queering Modernism at Frieze Masters
Image: Alice Neel, Richard Gibbs' Friend, 1962
Oil on canvas
106.7 x 78.7 cm
42 x 31 in
© The Estate of Alice Neel
Courtesy the Estate of Alice Neel, David Zwirner and Victoria Miro
October 8 2026
