'T.B. Harlem' by Alice Neel - a photo on Flickriver

'T.B. Harlem' by Alice Neel

            'T.B. Harlem' is a haunting portrait of Carlos Negron, the brother of American artist Alice Neel's lover Jose Santiago Negron, a Puerto Rican nightclub singer and guitarist.  Carlos is pictured here in painful recovery after receiving treatment for tuberculosis.  Neel (1900-1984) represented Negron as a contemporary martyr and his bandaged chest is a sign of both injury and persecution. He personifies life's unfairness and cruelty, to which Neel was empathetically drawn in her art.

The painting drew attention to the poverty and social issues of the time (1940).  Carlos was just twenty-four and had, two years earlier, moved from Puerto Rico to Spanish Harlem.  At that time tuberculosis had spread in the overcrowded urban neighborhoods, and the only available treatments to counteract the disease were radical. In the painting we see Carlos with a bandage on his chest covering the wound from his thoracoplasty, a procedure that was originally designed to permanently collapse the cavities of pulmonary tuberculosis by removing the ribs from the chest and by so doing, rest the tuberculosis-infected lung by removing ribs.  Although it is a good likeness of Carlos, Neel distorted and elongated his neck and arms.   Carlos’ face conveys a sense of dignity.  His right hand lies across his chest in a pose which was seen in traditional images of the martyred Christ.

Seen and photographed on display at The de Young Museum in San Francisco in an exhibit of Neel's works entitled 'Alice Neel: People Come First'.

Taken in: United States / California / Lone Mountain (show map)

Taken on: December 13, 2022

Tags:

Alice Neel

art

portrait

Carlos Negron

T.B. Harlem

painting

persecution

Jose Negron

tuberculosis

martyr

de Young Museum

social issues

Spanish Harlem

disease « less

Sets appears in: • Alice Neel: 'People Come First' • Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Groups appears in: • At the museum • Favorites: 5 more » • Favorite Paintings • *~ Painting with Light and Shadows ~* • AWAKE - ART FOR A CAUSE « less

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