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Munch Oslo
The Spectator feature
Why Alice Neel remains a vital presence
The artist’s path to success was long and arduous, paved with heartbreak and poverty
Oslo splash
Every Person is a New Universe
Munch Museum
Oslo
Munch Museum
Oslo
entrance
interior show 1
Details
Alice Neel: Every Person is a New Universe
Fall 2023 visitors became better acquainted with the radical artist Alice Neel in the most comprehensive presentation of her art ever shown in Norway. Organised in collaboration with the Centre Pompido, Paris and the Barbican Centre, London. Photos copyright Munchmuseet.
Visit the Munch Museum website
Visit the Munch Museum website
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interior show 1
cinema
interior show 1
interior show 1
interior show 1
interior show 1
interior show 1
The Spectator Feature
Why Alice Neel remains a vital presence
The artist’s path to success was long and arduous, paved with heartbreak and poverty
Saffron Swire
The Spectator
November 2024
Read more
Saffron Swire
The Spectator
November 2024
Read more
Oslo splash
Every Person is a New Universe
Munch Museum
Oslo
Munch Museum
Oslo
entrance
interior show 1
Details
Fall 2023 visitors became better acquainted with the radical artist Alice Neel in the most comprehensive presentation of her art ever shown in Norway. Organised in collaboration with the Centre Pompido, Paris and the Barbican Centre, London. Photos © Munchmuseet.
Visit the Munch Museum website
Visit the Munch Museum website
interior show 1
interior show 1
interior show 1
interior show 1
Munch, Oslo
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OCMA
Alice Neel: Feels Like Home
Orange County Museum of Art
June 23, 2023 –
October 23, 2023
Orange County Museum of Art
June 23, 2023 –
October 23, 2023
Details
Neel at Orange County Museum of Art
Feels Like Home examined the role of kinship, chosen family, and the importance of community within the work of Alice Neel. A curated selection of forty paintings, many pulled from the estate’s collection, focused on Neel’s honest, intimate paintings of her home, children, animals, and expanded family.
Visit their website
Visit their website
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OCMA
Alice Neel:
Feels Like Home
Orange County Museum of Art
June 23 –
October 22, 2023
Feels Like Home
Orange County Museum of Art
June 23 –
October 22, 2023
Details
Feels Like Home examined the role of kinship, chosen family, and the importance of community within the work of Alice Neel. A curated selection of forty paintings, many pulled from the estate’s collection, focused on Neel’s honest, intimate paintings of her home, children, animals, and expanded family.
Visit their website
Visit their website
Orange County
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Barbican
Alice Neel: Hot Off
The Griddle
Barbican, London
February 16, 2023 –
May 21, 2023
The Griddle
Barbican, London
February 16, 2023 –
May 21, 2023
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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
The Independent feature
Guess what, I’m alive! How New York artist Alice Neel seduced us with her fearless, fleshy portraits
The Independent
Alice Neel: Hot off the Griddle review – easy on the eye portraits from an artist with guts
Guardian Searle
Alice Neel review – sexy, wonky portraits of radicals, poets, feminists and naked art critics
The I
Hot Off the Griddle, Barbican: Nudity, suffering and joy from a radical collector of souls
Evening Standard
Hot off the Griddle at the Barbican review: this humane painter speaks so clearly to us still
The Times
Alice Neel: Hot Off the Griddle review — life unvarnished
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
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
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Barbican
Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle
Barbican, London
February 16 –
May 21, 2023
Barbican, London
February 16 –
May 21, 2023
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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
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
The Independent feature
‘Guess what, I’m alive!’: How New York artist Alice Neel seduced us with her fearless, fleshy portraits
The Independent
Alice Neel: Hot off the Griddle review – easy on the eye portraits from an artist with guts
Guardian Searle
Alice Neel review – sexy, wonky portraits of radicals, poets, feminists and naked art critics
The I
Hot Off the Griddle, Barbican, review: Nudity, suffering and joy from a radical collector of souls
Evening Standard
Alice Neel: Hot off the Griddle at the Barbican review: this humane painter speaks so clearly to us still
The Times
Guardian
FT
Alice Neel was a painter of people — and clothes ... her portraits have a sharp eye for fashion too
Observer
Guardian 2
‘She really wanted to see my labia piercing’: what was it like to be painted by Alice Neel?
FT 2
Alice Neel at the Barbican review — sharp portraits get under the skin
Fad Magazine
Barbican
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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
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Centre Pompidou
Un regard engagé / An Engaged Eye
The Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
October 5, 2022 –
January 16, 2023
The Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
October 5, 2022 –
January 16, 2023
Pompidou mobile
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
Art Newspaper
While her NY peers were fighting over the future of abstraction, Neel was urgently capturing life
Les Echoes
A la découverte de la peintre américaine Alice Neel / Discovering the American painter Alice Neel
Beaux Arts
Le Monde
At the Centre Pompidou, realist painter Alice Neel emerges from obscurity
Pompidou
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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.
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
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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
Elenka
San Fran examiner
How could an artist of such relaxed countenance plunge the depths of human existence with such detail and empathy? 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
The San Francisco Examiner
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) ... to understand Neel’s desire to depict all aspects of life ... Read more
Sarah Hotchkiss
KQED
KQED
de Young
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Guggenheim
People Come First
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17, 2021 –
February 6, 2022
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17, 2021 –
February 6, 2022
Elenka
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
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Bilbao
People Come First
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17 –
February 6, 2022
Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
September 17 –
February 6, 2022
Elenka
Biblao details
Neel at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
This was the first Spanish retrospective of Alice Neel, positioning her as one of the century’s most radical painters. A champion of social justice whose commitment to humanist principles inspired her life and her art. Installation images courtesy Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Visit their website
Elenka
Elenka
Elenka
Elenka
Elenka
Bilbao
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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
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
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 more
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 more
Audio
Press to hear Alice Neel speak about her life and work
interior show 1
NewYorker Quote small
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
The New Yorker
interior show 1
TheVulture Quote small
Experiencing Neel’s work at the Met — 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.
Jerry Saltz
The Vulture
The Vulture
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
The New York Times
interior show 1
WashingtonPost Quote small
Days after seeing “People Come First’’ 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
The Washington Post
interior show 1
The Met
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