Animated squares
Blank
Bsrbican
Alice Neel: Hot Off
The Griddle
Barbican, London
February 16, 2023 –
May 21, 2023
The Griddle
Barbican, London
February 16, 2023 –
May 21, 2023
Blank
Barbican details
Neel at Barbican Centre, London
The largest exhibition to date in the UK of American artist Alice Neel (1900–1984) whose vivid portraits capture the shifting social and political context of the American twentieth century.
Visit their website
Visit their website
Guardian
‘She created a space where people could reveal themselves’: the unique portraits of Alice Neel
FT
Alice Neel was a painter of people — and clothes ... her portraits have a sharp eye for fashion too
Observer
Alice Neel: Hot Off the Griddle; Action, Gesture, Paint – review
Observer
‘She really wanted to see my labia piercing’: what was it like to be painted by Alice Neel?
FT 2
Alice Neel, Barbican review — sharp portraits get under the skin
Fad Magazine
Blank
Barbican
Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle
Barbican, London
February 16 –
May 21, 2023
Barbican, London
February 16 –
May 21, 2023
Blank
Barbican Details
Neel at Barbican Centre, London
The largest exhibition to date in the UK of American artist Alice Neel (1900–1984) whose vivid portraits capture the shifting social and political context of the American twentieth century.
Visit their website
Visit their website
Guardian
She created a space where people could reveal themselves’: the unique portraits of Alice Neel
FT
Alice Neel was a painter of people — and clothes ... her portraits have a sharp eye for fashion too
Observer
Alice Neel: Hot Off the Griddle; Action, Gesture, Paint – review
Guardian 2
‘She really wanted to see my labia piercing’: what was it like to be painted by Alice Neel?
FT 2
Alice Neel, Barbican review — sharp portraits get under the skin
Fad Magazine
Blank
Pompidou
Un regard engagé
An Engaged Eye
Centre Pompidou
Paris, France
October 5, 2022 –
January 16, 2023
An Engaged Eye
Centre Pompidou
Paris, France
October 5, 2022 –
January 16, 2023
Pompidou details
Neel at Centre Pompidou Paris
An icon of militant feminism and a precursor of an intersectional approach, Neel often painted women – nudes who were a far cry from the traditional paradigm shaped by the male view and devoid of any sentimentality. The exhibition was divided into two parts structured freely around the notions of class and gender struggle. In total, some 75 paintings and drawings were on display. Visit their website.
Le Monde
At the Centre Pompidou, realist painter Alice Neel emerges from obscurity
Art Newspaper
While her New York peers were fighting over the future of abstraction, Alice Neel was urgently capturing life
Les Echoes
Discovering the American painter Alice Neel
A la découverte de la peintre américaine Alice Neel
A la découverte de la peintre américaine Alice Neel
Judith Benhamoud, Les Echoes, November 4, 2022
Read more
Read more
Beaux Arts
The Human Comedy
of Alice Neel
La comédie humaine
d’Alice Neel
of Alice Neel
La comédie humaine
d’Alice Neel
Blank
Centre Pompidou
Un regard engagé
An Engaged Eye
Centre Pompidou
Paris, France
October 5, 2022 –
January 16, 2023
An Engaged Eye
Centre Pompidou
Paris, France
October 5, 2022 –
January 16, 2023
Pompidou mobile
Neel at Centre Pompidou Paris
An icon of militant feminism and a precursor of an intersectional approach, Neel often painted women – nudes who were a far cry from the traditional paradigm shaped by the male view and devoid of any sentimentality. It was structured freely around the notions of class and gender struggle. Visit their website
Le Monde
At the Centre Pompidou, realist painter Alice Neel emerges from obscurity
Art Newspaper
While her NY peers were fighting over the future of abstraction, Alice Neel was urgently capturing life
Les Echoes
Discovering the American painter Alice Neel
A la découverte de la peintre américaine Alice Neel
A la découverte de la peintre américaine Alice Neel
Beaux Arts
The Human Comedy of Alice Neel
La comédie humaine d’Alice Neel
La comédie humaine d’Alice Neel
Blank
de Young
People Come First
de Young museum
San Francisco
March 12, 2022 –
July 10, 2022
de Young museum
San Francisco
March 12, 2022 –
July 10, 2022
Elenka
de Young details
Neel at de Young museum San Francisco
Alice Neel was one of the twentieth century’s most radical painters. This was the first comprehensive West Coast retrospective of Neel’s work. The award-winning exhibition included paintings, drawings, and watercolors, along with additional artworks and media exclusive to the San Francisco show. Installation view photograph by Gary Sexton, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Visit their website.
ABC7
Click here to watch an interview with Lauren Palmore, Assistant Curator of American art at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. She describes Neel as "Decades ahead of her time in her sympathy for her neighbors in Spanish Harlem, for LGBTQ+ couples, for creatives of all walks of life. She saw everyone's innate humanity. That's what really set her apart..."
ABC7 News
March 13, 2022
March 13, 2022
Elenka
Blackbook
This past July 12, a New York Times headline blared what practically sounded like the launch of a full-blown campaign: It’s Time to Put Alice Neel in Her Rightful Place in the Pantheon. They were right; and it should be stated that said pantheon does not just include the top female artists of her generation, but arguably all of the most prominent American artists of the 20th Century. Read more
Nena Hawke
Blackbook
March 15, 2022
Blackbook
March 15, 2022
business man
San Fran examiner
How could an artist of such relaxed countenance plunge the depths of human existence with such detail and empathy ... without taking on some of those very depths? That’s one of the many questions that art-goers will have as they traverse an exhibit that reveals an artist who was both of her time and ahead of her time in the way she spotlighted people and scenes the art world had previously ignored. Read more
Jonathan Curiel
The San Francisco Examiner
March 10, 2022
The San Francisco Examiner
March 10, 2022
KQED
That thrilling combination of representation and abstraction is so contemporary, it’s possible to now take the radicalness of Neel’s work for granted. But one need only to look at Childbirth (1939), thought to be one of the first Western paintings to represent a woman giving birth, to understand how Neel’s desire to depict all aspects of life made her work so remarkable. Read more
Sarah Hotchkiss
KQED
March 11, 2022
KQED
March 11, 2022
Blank
de Young
People Come First
de Young museum
San Francisco
March 12, 2022 –
July 10, 2022
de Young museum
San Francisco
March 12, 2022 –
July 10, 2022
Elenka
de Young details
Neel at de Young museum San Francisco
The first West Coast retrospective of Neel’s work. The award-winning exhibition included paintings, drawings, and watercolors, along with additional artworks and media exclusive to San Francisco. Installation view photograph by Gary Sexton, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Visit their website
ABC7
Click here to watch an interview with Lauren Palmore, Assistant Curator of American art at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. She describes Neel as "Decades ahead of her time in her sympathy for her neighbors in Spanish Harlem, for LGBTQ+ couples, for creatives of all walks of life.."
ABC7 News
March 13, 2022
March 13, 2022
Elenka
Blackbook
A New York Times headline blared what practically sounded like the launch of a full-blown campaign: It’s Time to Put Alice Neel in Her Rightful Place in the Pantheon. They were right ... said pantheon does not just include the top female artists of her generation, but arguably all of the most prominent US artists of the 20th Century. Read more
Nena Hawke, Blackbook
March 15, 2022
March 15, 2022
San Fran examiner
How could an artist of such relaxed countenance plunge the depths of human existence with such detail and empathy ... without taking on some of those very depths? An artist who was both of her time and ahead of her time in the way she spotlighted people and scenes the art world had previously ignored. Read more
Jonathan Curiel, The San Francisco Examiner
March 10, 2022
March 10, 2022
business man
KQED
That thrilling combination of representation and abstraction is so contemporary, it’s possible to now take the radicalness of Neel’s work for granted. But one need only to look at Childbirth (1939), thought to be one of the first Western paintings to represent a woman giving birth, to understand how Neel’s desire to depict all aspects of life... More
Sarah Hotchkiss
KQED
March 11, 2022
KQED
March 11, 2022
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Elenka
Guggenheim
People Come First
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17, 2021 –
February 6, 2022
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17, 2021 –
February 6, 2022
Elenka
Elenka
Guggenheim details
Neel at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
This was the first Spanish retrospective of American artist Alice Neel. The ambitious exhibition positioned Neel as one of the century’s most radical painters. Neel was a champion of social justice – whose longstanding commitment to humanist principles inspired her life as well as her art, as demonstrated in approximately one hundred paintings, drawings, and watercolors that appeared. Installation images courtesy Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Visit the Guggenheim website
Elenka
Elenka
Elenka
Elenka
Blank
Elenka
Guggenheim
People Come First
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17, 2021 –
February 6, 2022
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17, 2021 –
February 6, 2022
Elenka
Elenka
Guggenheim details
Neel at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
This was the first Spanish retrospective of American artist Alice Neel. The ambitious exhibition positioned Neel as one of the century’s most radical painters. Neel was a champion of social justice – whose longstanding commitment to humanist principles inspired her life as well as her art, as demonstrated in approximately one hundred paintings, drawings, and watercolors that appeared. Installation images courtesy Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Visit the Guggenheim website
Elenka
Elenka
Elenka
Blank
Elenka
Guggenheim
People Come First
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17 –
February 6, 2022
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17 –
February 6, 2022
Elenka
Elenka
Guggenheim details
Neel at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
This was the first Spanish retrospective of American artist Alice Neel, and this ambitious exhibition positioned 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. Installation images courtesy Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Visit the Guggenheim website
Elenka
Elenka
Elenka
Animated squares
Blank
Met splash
People Come First
March 22, 2021 –
August 1, 2021
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York
March 22, 2021 –
August 1, 2021
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York
exterior show
NYTimes Quote large
It’s time to put Alice Neel in her rightful place in the pantheon
Roberta Smith
The New York Times, April 1, 2021
The New York Times, April 1, 2021
interior show 1
Apartment Quote
In March, the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrated Neel’s art... This month, David Zwirner gallery will present a collection of the artist’s early works, including streetscapes and portraits, at its West 20th Street space in New York City. Continued and growing interest in Neel’s paintings could be viewed as inevitable — her focus on those who lived on society’s margins speaks directly to our cultural moment.
Rennie McDougall
New York Times, September 10, 2021
New York Times, September 10, 2021
Audio
Press to hear Alice Neel speak about her life and work
interior show 1
Apollo Winner
Apollo Magazine: Exhibition of the Year
Alice Neel: People Come First
The Met, New York 2021
In around 100 paintings, drawings and watercolours the largest retrospective of Neel’s work in New York – and the first in 20 years – argued for her as one of the great American painters of the 20th century. The artist’s urgent, sympathetic portraits of her fellow New Yorkers felt particularly welcome in 2021, and this show awarded them with the status they have long deserved.
Alice Neel: People Come First
The Met, New York 2021
In around 100 paintings, drawings and watercolours the largest retrospective of Neel’s work in New York – and the first in 20 years – argued for her as one of the great American painters of the 20th century. The artist’s urgent, sympathetic portraits of her fellow New Yorkers felt particularly welcome in 2021, and this show awarded them with the status they have long deserved.
interior show 1
NewYorker Quote small
There’s a profound spiritual component to the work; her intense and casual surfaces feel like a wall that she wants her subjects’ souls to walk through to meet ours. At times, her focus, her desire to understand who her subjects are and, by extension, who you might be, can have you rushing out of the galleries for a breath of air.
Hilton Als
The New Yorker, April 19, 2021
The New Yorker, April 19, 2021
interior show 1
TheVulture Quote small
Experiencing Neel’s work at the Met — after a full year of loss and social upheaval — her gigantic vision, perseverance, and the tragedies of her life tell us that we could be heroes like her and the people she painted. It’s easy to recognize her greatness in retrospect, when her work is celebrated in a setting like this. For most of Neel’s 84 years, though, she was artistically on her own. “I broke all the rules,” she said.
Jerry Saltz
The Vulture, April 6, 2021
The Vulture, April 6, 2021
interior show 1
NYTimesquote small
A large retrospective feels at home in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s grandest galleries and should silence any doubt about the artist’s originality or her importance... The latest evidence is the gloriously relentless retrospective of Alice Neel (1900-1984), the radical realist painter of all things human, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Roberta Smith
The New York Times, April 1, 2021
The New York Times, April 1, 2021
interior show 1
WashingtonPost Quote small
Days after seeing “People Come First’’ ... an afterimage of her brisk vision of vibrant humanity still pulses behind my eyes. Even in memory, Neel's paintings never sit still. They squirm, shiver and jiggle. Particularly memorable is her astonishing sequence of tender yet frank, unidealized portraits of pregnant women, women in childbirth and women breastfeeding. Regarded cumulatively, they are one of the signal achievements of modern American art.
Sebastian Smee
The Washington Post, March 25, 2021
The Washington Post, March 25, 2021
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Met splash
People Come First
March 22, 2021 –
August 1, 2021
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York
March 22, 2021 –
August 1, 2021
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York
exterior show
NYTimes Quote large
It’s time to put Alice Neel in her rightful place in the pantheon
Roberta Smith
The New York Times, April 1, 2021
The New York Times, April 1, 2021
interior show 1
Apollo Winner
Apollo Magazine
Exhibition of the Year
People Come First
The Met, New York 2021
Exhibition of the Year
People Come First
The Met, New York 2021
The artist’s urgent, sympathetic portraits of her fellow New Yorkers felt particularly welcome in 2021, and this show awarded them with the status they have long deserved.
Read here
Read here
Audio
Press to hear Alice Neel speak about her life and work
interior show 1
NewYorker Quote small
There’s a profound spiritual component to the work; her intense and casual surfaces feel like a wall that she wants her subjects’ souls to walk through to meet ours. At times, her focus, her desire to understand who her subjects are and, by extension, who you might be, can have you rushing out of the galleries for a breath of air.
Hilton Als
The New Yorker, April 19, 2021
The New Yorker, April 19, 2021
interior show 1
TheVulture Quote small
Experiencing Neel’s work at the Met — after a full year of loss and social upheaval — her gigantic vision, perseverance, and the tragedies of her life tell us that we could be heroes like her and the people she painted. It’s easy to recognize her greatness in retrospect, when her work is celebrated in a setting like this. For most of Neel’s 84 years, though, she was artistically on her own.
Jerry Saltz
The Vulture, April 6, 2021
The Vulture, April 6, 2021
interior show 1
NYTimesquote small
A large retrospective feels at home in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s grandest galleries and should silence any doubt about the artist’s originality or her importance... The latest evidence is the gloriously relentless retrospective of Alice Neel (1900-1984), the radical realist painter of all things human....
Roberta Smith
The New York Times, April 1, 2021
The New York Times, April 1, 2021
interior show 1
WashingtonPost Quote small
Days after seeing “People Come First’’, a career-spanning Alice Neel survey at the Met in New York, an afterimage of her brisk vision of vibrant humanity still pulses behind my eyes. Even in memory, Neel's paintings never sit still. They squirm, shiver and jiggle... they are one of the signal achievements of modern American art.
Sebastian Smee
The Washington Post, March 25, 2021
The Washington Post, March 25, 2021
interior show 1
Animated squares
All Shows
Xavier Hufkens
Seeing who we are
David Zwirner
The Early YearsFondation Beyeler
Close-Up
Seeing who we are
David Zwirner
The Early Years
Fondation BeyelerClose-Up
Xavier
Alice Neel:
Seeing who we are
Xavier Hufkens
Brussels
January 27 –
March 5, 2022
Seeing who we are
Xavier Hufkens
Brussels
January 27 –
March 5, 2022
Slide
Slide
Xavier Details
Neel at Xavier Hufkins, Brussels
Painted over a fifty-year period, this thoughtfully selected group of paintings includes many never previously exhibited works, illuminating the creative evolution of her oeuvre across the decades. Pairing portraits of youth with the elderly, we are led to reflect on life’s most meaningful questions: when do we become who we are? And how have we changed? Visit the Xavier Hufkens website.
Zrimer
Alice Neel:
The Early Years
David Zwirner
New York
September 9 –
October 16, 2021
The Early Years
David Zwirner
New York
September 9 –
October 16, 2021
Elenka
Zwerner details
Neel at David Zwirner, New York
David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Alice Neel (1900–1984) from the first decades of the artist’s influential career. On view at the gallery’s 537 West 20th Street location, the focused presentation centers around works from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and includes interiors, memory paintings, New York City streetscapes, and intimate portraits of family and others close to Neel.
Zwerner NY Times quote
The New York Times
September 30, 2021
‘Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now.’ By Will Heinrich
‘Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now.’ By Will Heinrich
The canvases in “Alice Neel: The Early Years”, at David Zwirner, curated by Ginny Neel, the artist’s daughter-in-law, with Bellatrix Hubert … are arranged, very loosely, in order of size and weight as well as chronology, as if to guide viewers toward a transcendent encounter with the artist’s grown sons. Captured, with Neel’s singular magic … are pulsing, slippery and alive, at once present and opaque. Read here
Fondation Beyeler
Close-Up
Fondation Beyeler
Switzerland
September 19 –
January 2, 2022
Fondation Beyeler
Switzerland
September 19 –
January 2, 2022
Elenka
Fondation Beyeler details
Close-Up at Fondation Beyeler
Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Lotte Laserstein, Frida Kahlo, Alice Neel, Marlene Dumas, Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Peyton. The exhibition shows works by women artists occupying prominent positions within the history of modern art from 1870 to the present day. The work by Alice Neel that will be featured is a wonderful painting seldom loaned: Richard at Age Five, 1945.
Fondation Beyeler essay
Close-Up Catalogue
It’s clear that, as with all Neel’s portraits, the proximate and intimate encounter staged in Pregnant Woman is that between the artist and her model... There is nothing abstracted or distant about the encounter. This is a confrontation with the human as a physical and psychological presence.
Portraiture and Proximity Meditations in a Time of Social Distancing. Essay by Tamar Garb. Buy the book
Portraiture and Proximity Meditations in a Time of Social Distancing. Essay by Tamar Garb. Buy the book
All Shows
Xavier Hufkens
Seeing who we are
David Zwirner
The Early YearsFondation Beyeler
Close-Up
Seeing who we are
David Zwirner
The Early Years
Fondation BeyelerClose-Up
Xavier
Alice Neel:
Seeing who we are
Xavier Hufkens
Brussels
January 27 –
March 5, 2022
Seeing who we are
Xavier Hufkens
Brussels
January 27 –
March 5, 2022
Slide
Xavier details
Neel at Xavier Hufkins, Brussels
Pairing portraits of youth with the elderly, we are led to reflect on life’s most meaningful questions: when do we become who we are? And how have we changed? Visit the Xavier Hufkens website.
Zwirmer
Alice Neel:
The Early Years
David Zwirner
New York
September 9 –
October 16, 2021
The Early Years
David Zwirner
New York
September 9 –
October 16, 2021
Elenka
Zwerner details
Neel at David Zwirner, New York
David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Alice Neel (1900–1984) from the first decades of the artist’s influential career. On view at the gallery’s 537 West 20th Street location, the focused presentation centers around works from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and includes interiors, New York City streetscapes, and intimate portraits.
Zwerner NY Times quote
The New York Times
September 10, 2021
‘Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now.’
By Will Heinrich
‘Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now.’
By Will Heinrich
“Alice Neel: The Early Years”, at David Zwirner, curated by Ginny Neel, the artist’s daughter-in-law, with Bellatrix Hubert … are arranged, very loosely, in order of size and weight as well as chronology, as if to guide viewers toward a transcendent encounter with the artist’s grown sons. Read here
Fondation Beyeler
Close-Up
Fondation Beyeler
Switzerland
September 19 –
January 2, 2022
Fondation Beyeler
Switzerland
September 19 –
January 2, 2022
Elenka
Fondation Beyeler details
Close-Up at Fondation Beyeler
Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Lotte Laserstein, Frida Kahlo, Alice Neel, Marlene Dumas, Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Peyton. The exhibition shows works by women artists occupying prominent positions within the history of modern art from 1870 to the present day. Neel's work that will be featured is a wonderful painting seldom loaned: Richard at Age Five, 1945.
Fondation Beyeler essay
Close-Up Catalogue
It’s clear that, as with all Neel’s portraits, the proximate and intimate encounter staged in Pregnant Woman is that between the artist and her model... There is nothing abstracted or distant about the encounter. This is a confrontation with the human as a physical and psychological presence.
Portraiture and Proximity Meditations in a Time of Social Distancing. Essay by Tamar Garb. Buy the book
Portraiture and Proximity Meditations in a Time of Social Distancing. Essay by Tamar Garb. Buy the book
About intro
About Alice Neel
Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century
Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century
Intro
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
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.
Artisitc Development
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
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. Neel was 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.
More
Justice
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.
More
Later life
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.
New Millennium
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 intro
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.
Intro
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
Early Life
Born near Philadelphia in 1900, Neel 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 and enrolled as a member of the Works Progress Administration, painting urban scenes. Her 1930s portraits embraced left wing writers, artists and trade unionists.
Artisitc Development
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
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.
More
Justice
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 lthe poor, women’s freedom from stereotypes, their equality of eroticism and intelligence, gay rights, gender discrimination, and all forms of racism.
More
Later life
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.
New Millennium
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.
Animated squares
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