November 23–30, 1995

art

Remembering Edith Neff

Years ago, when I moved to Philadelphia, Edith Neff was one of the first local painters whose work I learned to recognize. As a newcomer, I particularly admired the affectionate disengagement with which she depicts in paint and pastel our distinctive brick buildings and our (then) charmingly old-fashioned low-rise skyline. Neff's human subjects are ordinary urban folk, much like my neighbors. I have always respected her vision of human beings in their inextricable social relatedness and separateness.

Last Thursday, at the age of 52, Neff died of cancer. That evening I spoke on the telephone with her friend, the painter and critic Bill Scott. He said, "Today, as I was walking through Center City, whenever I stopped at a red light I looked across the street at the pedestrians waiting in anticipation on the other side. And I thought they looked like they were posing for her. I could imagine her painting them — that sense of aloneness."

Neff was an important contemporary exponent of the Philadelphia realist tradition. A 1965 graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art, she did not merely represent what she saw, she infused her paintings of people, animals, land and architecture with a sense of myth and mystery. Sometimes her paintings were directly connected to a particular myth, like that of Persephone. In other cases, unusual juxtapositions carried their own kind of inevitability, a narrative which did not need to be explicit to be engaging.

Early in her career, Neff's paintings were purchased by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Her work was always taken seriously and it received national exposure. In 1978 she joined the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where she taught until her death.

One of my favorite Neff paintings was done in 1978: Self Portrait with a Fur Coat , a version of Rubens' portrait of his young wife Saskia. In Neff's (perhaps feminist) revision, the artist and model clothes herself sensuously and luxuriously, gazes at herself and paints herself without the assistance of a man. The nude figure projects a muted sense of fun and daring subsumed within the act of painting itself, an act which Neff could not treat frivolously.

The artist, who is survived by her husband Albert Neff, her mother and two sisters, frequently used her family and friends as models. Though isolation seems to be a theme in her work, she had a gift for friendship. Scott, who knew her for about 20 years, spoke admiringly of her work, and of her generosity to colleagues and students. Remembering other distinguished Philadelphia painters, also friends of Neff, who have died, he said, "I know it's ridiculous, but it's nice to think of her now with Jane Piper and Harry Soviak sitting down together for a picnic."

Neff worked up to the time of her death preparing for an exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance next spring. By coincidence, she had her first solo show at the Art Alliance in 1967. Neff's last show will open on March 15, 1996 and run through April.

A memorial service will be held at the Ethical Society of Philadelphia, 1906 Rittenhouse Square, Sunday, Dec 17 at 2:30p.m. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18 St., Phila. 19103, Attention: Diane Brubaker. Donations will be applied to the printing of a brochure for the exhibition at the Art Alliance.

— Robin Rice