






People Come First
The Met New York
Show open until
August 1, 2021
The Met New York
Show open until
August 1, 2021
People Come First
Virtual Opening
Thursday, March 25
7 pm ET
Virtual Opening
Thursday, March 25
7 pm ET
Press to hear Alice Neel speak about her life and work




People Come First
The Met New York
Show open until
August 1, 2021
The Met New York
Show open until
August 1, 2021
People Come First
Virtual Opening
Thursday, March 25
7 pm ET
Virtual Opening
Thursday, March 25
7 pm ET
Press to hear Alice Neel speak about her life and work




People Come First
The Met New York
Show open until
August 1, 2021
The Met New York
Show open until
August 1, 2021
People Come First
Virtual Opening
7:00 pm ET
Thursday
March 25
Virtual Opening
7:00 pm ET
Thursday
March 25
Press to hear Alice Neel speak about her life and work




Latest Show
People Come First
March 22, 2021 –
August 1, 2021
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York
Latest Show
People Come First
March 22, 2021 –
August 1, 2021
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York
Exhibition Overview
Alice Neel: People Come First is the first museum retrospective in New York of American artist Alice Neel (1900–1984) in twenty years. This ambitious survey positions Neel as one of the century’s most radical painters, a champion of social justice whose longstanding commitment to humanist principles inspired her life as well as her art, as demonstrated in the approximately one hundred paintings, drawings, and watercolors that appear in The Met’s survey. Accompanied by a catalogue. Visit the Met website
A selection of work in the Met exhibition People Come First




Exhibition Overview
Alice Neel: People Come First is the first museum retrospective in New York of American artist Alice Neel (1900–1984) in twenty years. This ambitious exhibition positions Neel as one of the century’s most radical painters, a champion of social justice whose longstanding commitment to humanist principles inspired her life as well as her art, as demonstrated through the approximately one hundred paintings, drawings, and watercolors that appear in The Met’s survey. Accompanied by a catalogue. Visit the Met website
A selection of work in the Met exhibition People Come First




Exhibition Overview
This is the first museum retrospective in New York of American artist Alice Neel (1900–1984) in twenty years. This ambitious survey positions Neel as one of the century’s most radical painters, a champion of social justice whose longstanding commitment to humanist principles inspired her life as well as her art. The show is accompanied by a catalogue. Visit the Met website
A selection of paintings in the Met exhibition People Come First
Elenka 1936

Geoffrey Hendricks
and Brian 1978
and Brian 1978

Jackie Curtis and
Ritta Redd 1970
Ritta Redd 1970

Synthesis of
New York 1933
New York 1933

Sunset Riverside
Drive 1961
Drive 1961

Elizabeth 1984

Andy Warhol 1970

Hartley 1965

Pregnant Julie
and Algis 1967
and Algis 1967












Alice Neel at the Met has received glowing praise in the press. Here’s a selection of reviews
The New York Times
April 1, 2021
‘It’s Time to Put Alice Neel in Her Rightful Place in the Pantheon’ By Roberta Smith
Read here
‘It’s Time to Put Alice Neel in Her Rightful Place in the Pantheon’ By Roberta Smith
Read here
The Vulture
April 6, 2021
‘The Detonations of Alice Neel: The artist’s portrait show at the Met is packed with raw emotional power. ’ By Jerry Saltz
Read here
‘The Detonations of Alice Neel: The artist’s portrait show at the Met is packed with raw emotional power. ’ By Jerry Saltz
Read here
Artnet
April 2, 2021
‘Painter Alice Neel’s Career Survey at the Met Suggests What Empathy Can Look Like in an Age of Difference’
Read here
‘Painter Alice Neel’s Career Survey at the Met Suggests What Empathy Can Look Like in an Age of Difference’
Read here
The Washington Post
March 25, 2021
‘Alice Neel was the greatest American portraitist of the 20th century. Her work continues to astonish.’ By Sebastian Smee
Read here
‘Alice Neel was the greatest American portraitist of the 20th century. Her work continues to astonish.’ By Sebastian Smee
Read here




Alice Neel at the Met has received glowing praise in the press. Here’s a selection of reviews
The New York Times
April 1, 2021
‘It’s Time to Put Alice Neel in Her Rightful Place in the Pantheon’ By Roberta Smith
Read here
‘It’s Time to Put Alice Neel in Her Rightful Place in the Pantheon’ By Roberta Smith
Read here
The Vulture
April 6, 2021
‘The Detonations of Alice Neel: The artist’s portrait show at the Met is packed with raw emotional power. ’
By Jerry Saltz
Read here
‘The Detonations of Alice Neel: The artist’s portrait show at the Met is packed with raw emotional power. ’
By Jerry Saltz
Read here
Artnet
April 2, 2021
‘Painter Alice Neel’s Career Survey at the Met Suggests What Empathy Can Look Like in an Age of Difference’
Read here
‘Painter Alice Neel’s Career Survey at the Met Suggests What Empathy Can Look Like in an Age of Difference’
Read here
The Washington Post
March 25, 2021
‘Alice Neel was the greatest American portraitist of the 20th century. Her work continues to astonish.’ By Sebastian Smee
Read here
‘Alice Neel was the greatest American portraitist of the 20th century. Her work continues to astonish.’ By Sebastian Smee
Read here











About Alice Neel
Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century
Artist, Humanist, Individualist
Alice Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century and a pioneer among women artists. A painter of people, landscape and still life, Neel was never fashionable or in step with avant-garde movements. Sympathetic to the expressionists of Europe and Scandinavia and to the darker arts of Spanish painting, Alice Neel's style and approach was distinctively her own.
Early Life
Neel was born near Philadelphia in 1900 and trained at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. She became a painter with a strong social conscience and equally strong left-wing beliefs. In the 1930s she lived in Greenwich Village, New York and enrolled as a member of the Works Progress Administration for which she painted urban scenes. Her 1930s portraits embraced left wing writers, artists and trade unionists.
Artistic Development
Neel left Greenwich Village for Spanish Harlem in 1938 to get away from the rarefied atmosphere of an art colony. In the 1960s she moved to the Upper West Side and made a determined effort to reintegrate with the art world. This led to a series of dynamic portraits of artists, curators and gallery owners, among them Frank O’Hara, Andy Warhol and the young Robert Smithson.
Recognition
In the 1970s, as her fame increased, she never lost touch with what most mattered to her, the people of New York who happened to intersect with her life, be it art world figures, neighbors, or strangers. Never restrained by convention, she broke barriers throughout her life, celebrating the freedom of women to express their independence and take pride in their bodies.
Champion of Social Justice
Neel’s entire life and work was infused with an interest in all humanity. She had a sensitivity for those who suffered from and those who fought against social discrimination. Neel was always ahead of society’s acceptance: whether the plight of labourers, the poor, women’s freedom from stereotypes, their equality of eroticism and intelligence, gender discrimination including gay rights, and racism against blacks and immigrants.
Later Life
Alice Neel exhibited widely in America throughout the 1970s and in 1974 she was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In the year 2000, she was again honored with a retrospective on the occasion of her centennial. She was widely recognized as one of America’s great artists, but she was still rarely noticed in Europe.
Retrospective
In 2010, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston organized a retrospective with Barry Walker and Jeremy Lewison that traveled to two venues in Europe: the Whitechapel in London and the Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö, Sweden. This initial introduction was well received. In 2016 another retrospective that traveled through Europe resulted finally in her recognition as a world renowned artist of the 20th century.




About Neel
Alice Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century who painted in a style and with an approach that was distinctively her own.
Alice Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century who painted in a style and with an approach that was distinctively her own.
Artist, Humanist, Individualist
Alice Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century and a pioneer among women artists. A painter of people, landscape and still life, Neel was never fashionable or in step with avant-garde movements. Sympathetic to the expressionists of Europe and Scandinavia and to the darker arts of Spanish painting, Neel's style and approach was distinctively her own.
Early Life
Neel was born near Philadelphia in 1900 and trained at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. She became a painter with a strong social conscience and equally strong left-wing beliefs. In the 1930s she lived in Greenwich Village, New York and enrolled as a member of the Works Progress Administration for which she painted urban scenes. Her 1930s portraits embraced left wing writers, artists and trade unionists.
Artistic Development
Neel left Greenwich Village for Spanish Harlem in 1938 to get away from the rarefied atmosphere of an art colony. In the 1960s she moved to the Upper West Side and made a determined effort to reintegrate with the art world. This led to a series of dynamic portraits of artists, curators and gallery owners, among them Frank O’Hara, Andy Warhol and the young Robert Smithson.
Recognition
In the 1970s, as her fame increased, she never lost touch with what most mattered to her, the people of New York who happened to intersect with her life, be it art world figures, neighbors, or strangers. Never restrained by convention, she broke barriers her whole life, celebrating the freedom of women to express their independence and take pride in their bodies.
Champion of Social Justice
Neel’s entire life and work was infused with an interest in all humanity. She had a sensitivity for those who suffered from and those who fought against social discrimination. Neel was always ahead of society’s acceptance: whether the plight of labourers, the poor, women’s freedom from stereotypes, their equality of eroticism and intelligence, gender discrimination including gay rights, and all forms of racism.
Later Life
Neel exhibited widely in America throughout the 1970s and in 1974 she was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In the year 2000, she was again honored with a retrospective on the occasion of her centennial. She was widely recognized as one of America’s great artists, but she was rarely noticed in Europe.
Retrospective
In 2010, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston organized a retrospective with Barry Walker and Jeremy Lewison that traveled to two venues in Europe: the Whitechapel in London and the Moderna Museet Malmö in Sweden. This introduction was well received. In 2016 another retrospective that traveled through Europe resulted finally in her recognition as a world renowned artist of the 20th century.











Next Show
People Come First
Guggenheim Bilbao
September 17, 2021 –
January 23, 2022
Next Show
People Come First
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17, 2021 –
January 23, 2022
Neel at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
This will be the first retrospective in Spain of American artist Alice Neel. This ambitious exhibition will position Neel as one of the century’s most radical painters, a champion of social justice whose longstanding commitment to humanist principles inspired her life as well as her art, as demonstrated in the approximately one hundred paintings, drawings, and watercolors that will appear. Visit the Guggenheim website




Neel at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
This will be the first retrospective in Spain of American artist Alice Neel. This ambitious exhibition will position Neel as one of the century’s most radical painters, a champion of social justice whose longstanding commitment to humanist principles inspired her life as well as her art, as explored in the approximately one hundred paintings, drawings, and watercolors that will appear. Visit the Guggenheim website





