1908- Born February 22nd in New York City to Irish-American working-class family.
1922-26- Attends art classes at Brooklyn Museum while studying at Brooklyn Tech High School. Influenced by the museum’s “Societé Anonyme” collection containing works by Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp, and Picabia.
1927- Wins New York Art League Scholarship and enters General Art Program, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.
1927-32- Attends General Art Program, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. Studies work by French Modernist artists and copies works in Metropolitan Museum of Art. Attends and is influenced by Vaclav Vytlacil’s lectures at the Art Students’ League, where he studies with Jan Matulka. Becomes acquainted with Arshile Gorky.
1932-36- Studies with Hans Hofmann, first at Art Students’ League, then at Hofmann’s own school. Begins to develop his own theories of modern art. Friends with Mercedes (Carles) Matter, Lee Krasner, Ray (Kaiser) Eames, Giorgio Cavallon, Harry Bowden, and John Opper.
1935- Joins the W.P.A. and serves on the Federal Art project with artists such as Willem de Kooning and James Brooks. Supported by Burgoyne Diller on Williamsburg Mural Project.
1936- Serves as founding member of American Abstract Artists with Ibram Lassaw, Ilya Bolotowsky, Rosalind Bengelsdorf, and others. Combating the rejection of contemporary American abstract art by museums, galleries and critics, the AAA publishes brochures and organizes annual exhibitions of works by members. Marries fellow Hofmann student Dora Tamler.
1936-7- Serves as monitor in Hofmann’s classes and teaches class in collage.
1939- Exhibits in “American Art Today” at the New York World’s Fair, where he is one of only five non-objective artists represented. Named by Stuart Davis as alternate for World’s Fair Committee of Selection. Visits Mexico with Dora McNeil and studies murals.
1940- Visits Cuba for four months. Work reflects Cuban dance and café life.
1941- Solo exhibition in the Lyceum Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
1941-3- War-related work in factories and as draftsman. Receives Ed. D. from Columbia University.
1942- McNeil's daughter Helen is born.
1943-46- Serves in the U.S. Navy. After basic training, posted to Washington D.C.
1946-48- Teaches at the University of Wyoming at Laramie. Fellow faculty at the time include Ilya Bolotowsky and Leon Kelly.
1947- Exhibits in “Abstract and Surrealist Art” at Art Institute of Chicago, first large-scale exhibition of contemporary American modern art.
1948-60- Serves as Director of Evening Art Program at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, where he brings in Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Reuben Nakian, and others to teach classes. Friendship with Kline.
1948- McNeil's son James is born.
1950- Has solo exhibition at the Charles Egan Gallery, New York, a gallery featuring emerging Abstract Expressionist artists such as Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, and Robert de Niro Sr.
1951- Participates in group exhibition “Abstract Art in America” at Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1952- Has solo exhibition at the Charles Egan Gallery, New York.
1953- Has solo exhibitions at the Charles Egan Gallery, New York and Brown Gallery, Boston. Participates in the Carnegie International group exhibition in Pittsburgh and in the Whitney Museum Exhibition (Whitney Annual) in New York. Visits France; attends life drawing class of Andre Lhote at Lhote's school in Montparnasse.
1954- Solo exhibition at the Charles Egan Gallery, New York.
Mid-late 1950s- McNeil’s painting style changes: work remains abstract but uses larger canvases, looser forms, and a complex palette. Work exhibited at HCE Gallery Provincetown, MA, where McNeil spends summers 1948-62.
1956- Solo exhibition at the De Young Museum, San Francisco; teaches at University of California at Berkeley 1956-7.
1957- Solo exhibition at the Poindexter Gallery, New York. Represented again in Whitney Museum Exhibition (2nd time).
1958- Joins life-drawing group with Mercedes Matter, Charles Cajori, Sidney Geist and others (through 1970s); group forms genesis of the New York Studio School.
1959- Solo exhibition at the Poindexter Gallery, New York.
1960s-70s- McNeil introduces figural elements to his continuing expressionist style; teaches Art History in undergraduate Pratt Institute Program and painting in MA program.
1960- Solo exhibition at Howard Wise Gallery.
1961- Solo exhibition at Nova Gallery, Boston; participates in “ Abstract Expressionists and Imagists,” group exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; again participates in Whitney Annual at Whitney Museum (3rd time).
1962- Solo exhibition at Howard Wise Gallery, New York. Participates in group exhibition at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
1963- Receives Ford Foundation Purchase Award. Participates in “ Directions: Painting USA,” group exhibition at the San Francisco Museum, San Francisco, CA.
1964- Solo exhibition at Howard Wise Gallery, New York. Begins to spend part of every summer teaching and painting in France (to 1970).
1965- Again participates in Whitney Annual Exhibition (4th time).
1966- Survey exhibition at University of Texas at Austin; solo exhibition at Great Jones Gallery, New York; participates in Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts exhibition. Receives National Council on the Arts Award. Begins teaching at New York Studio School (to 1980).
1968- Solo exhibition at Howard Wise Gallery: first exhibition of McNeil’s paintings of nudes in the “Dancer” and “Bather” series.
1969- Residency and solo exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa. Participates in “New American Painting: The First Generation” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Awarded Guggenheim grant.
1971- Works as Artist in Residence at Tamarind Institute print workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, during four invitational trips (1971, 1975, 1976, 1984). Imagery of New Mexico landscape and Native American culture evident in many paintings and lithographs 1970s-80s.
1973- Solo exhibition at Pratt Manhattan Center, New York.
1975- Solo exhibition at the Landmark Gallery, New York.
1976- Participates in “Advocates of Abstraction: The American Abstract Artists 1936-1943” at downtown Whitney Museum, New York.
1977- Solo exhibition at the Berman Gallery, New York. Participates in “ American Abstract Artists” group exhibition, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Figurative works now often represent identifiable dramatic situations.
1979- Solo exhibition at the Dintenfass Gallery, New York.
1981- Solo exhibition at the Gruenebaum Gallery, New York; begins “Disco” paintings.
1982- Receives award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Solo exhibition at University of Connecticut at Storrs; solo survey exhibition “George McNeil: the Past Twenty years” at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
1983- Solo exhibition at the Gruenebaum Gallery, New York. Participates in “ The Painterly Figure,” group exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York.
1984- Survey exhibition covering work 1954-84 at Artist’s Choice Museum, New York.
1985- Solo exhibitions at SUNY at Binghamton, New York; Kasmin Knoedler Gallery, London, UK; and Gruenebaum Gallery, New York. Receives honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute.
1986- Solo exhibition at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Participates in “American Masters: Works on Paper,” group exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC. Lectures and does critiques in Moscow, Leningrad and Tallinn, Estonia in connection with an exhibition by the Tamarind Institute sponsored by USIS, becoming the first American abstract artist to be permitted to lecture in the then USSR.
1987- Solo exhibition at the Gruenebaum Gallery. Participates in group exhibitions “Working Brooklyn,” Brooklyn Museum of Art, “The Interior Self,” Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey, and “Elders of the Tribe,” Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York.
1988- Receives honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art. Begins “ graffiti” and topographical paintings celebrating New York and its street life.
1989- Solo exhibition at Knoedler Gallery, New York. Residency at University of Hartford. As well as a solo exhibition at the Joceloff Gallery, University of Hartford. Elected to membership of the American Institute of Arts and Letters.
1990- Teaches Invitational Master Class at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA. Has survey of lithographs “George McNeil: Three Decades of Prints” at Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey. Wife Dora McNeil dies.
1991- Solo exhibition at Hirschl and Adler Modern Gallery, New York.
1990s- Paintings become overtly psychological and fetishistic. Last lithographs 1991. Paints and revises work through 1994.
1992- Solo exhibition, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles.
1993- Solo exhibition at the New York Studio School, New York.