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.
Describing herself as ‘a collector of souls’, Neel worked in New York during a period in which figurative painting was deeply unfashionable. Crowned the ‘court painter of the underground,’ her canvases celebrate those who were too often marginalised in society: labour leaders, Black and Puerto Rican children, pregnant women, Greenwich Village eccentrics, civil rights activists and queer performers. A member of the US Communist Party, Neel and her radical portraits caught the attention of the FBI. In recent years, the politics of her work has given her cult status among a younger generation of artists.
Organised in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou, Paris, this exhibition brings together over 70 of Neel’s most vibrant portraits, shown alongside archival photography and film, bringing to life what she called ’the swirl of the era’.
Lead image: Benny and Mary Ellen Andrews 1972, ©The Estate of Alice Neel and courtesy the Estate of Alice Neel
| Duration | 16 February 2023 - 21 May 2023 |
| Times | Sat-Wed 10am-6pm (last entry 5pm) Thu-Fri 10am-8pm (last entry 7pm) |
| Cost | £18 |
| Venue | Barbican Art Gallery |
| Address | Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS |
| Contact | / art@barbican.org.uk / www.barbican.org.uk |