And while the paintings in Folks Come 1st are undeniably Alice Neel paintings, the individuals depicted are also wholly them selves an equivalent feeling of personhood is granted to each of her sitters. Some are domestic names (artist Robert Smithson), whilst other people are regarded to us only because Neel painted them (a Black Vietnam War draftee named James Hunter). To me, it is the directness of Neel’s painting that helps express that humanity. She seldom relied on preliminary drawings, as an alternative placing down lines (usually with blue paint) at the start off of each and every session. A highlight of the de Young exhibition is the pairing of…