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10-Minute Challenge: A Finished, Unfinished Portrait by Alice Neel

We’d like you to look at one piece of art for 10 minutes, uninterrupted.

By Larry Buchanan, Francesca Paris and Nico Chilla

Oct. 3, 2024

Today, we bring you our fifth and final focuschallenge, in which we ask you to spend uninterrupted time looking at one piece of art.

This time, we want you to look at this 1965 painting by Alice Neel. You may find this last installment more challenging for its sparseness, but we think it’s worth your time.

A few things to consider during your time:

This work appears spare and unfinished. Why might that be?

What in the painting is your eye drawn to?

What would it have felt like to sit in the subject’s position, being studied and painted during a period of hours? What about in the painter’s position?

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Thanks for spending time with the art! If you want to look a little longer, just scroll back up and press “Continue.” Now, we’ll tell you a little bit about it.