Alice Neel

One of the foremost painters of the twentieth century, and among its most radical, Alice Neel (1900–1984) is known for her daring honesty in her pursuit of what she termed ‘the truth’ – of the individual and the broader society in which individual lives were lived. A painter of people, cityscapes, landscapes and still lifes, she was a woman with a strong social conscience and equally strong beliefs.

Neel’s is an art characterised by honesty. Throughout her career-long commitment to depicting the human condition and her practice of painting people from many walks of life, she addressed her subjects on canvas without preliminary sketches. The result of this direct approach is a body of work that preserves the spontaneity of initial ideas and the liveliness of the one-to-one encounter. Few twentieth century artists have documented the cycle of life with as penetrating a gaze. Her paintings of mothers and babies reveal her deep understanding of their close bond while her depictions of the elderly reveal an empathy for the changes that accompany old age.

About the Artist

Alice Neel was born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1900 and died in 1984 in New York.

Recent institutional exhibitions include Alice Neel: Feels Like Home, Orange County Museum of Art, California, USA (2023–24); the major retrospective, Alice Neel: Un regard engagé, highlighting the political and social commitment of the painter, at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2022–23), which travelled to the Barbican Centre in London, UK (Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle, 2023) and to MUNCH, Oslo, Norway (Alice Neel: Every Person is a New Universe, 2023); and the acclaimed 2021–22 touring survey Alice Neel: People Come First, organised by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA, in association with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain, and The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, USA.

Previous solo institutional exhibitions include Alice Neel: Painter of Modern Life at Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland (2016) travelling to Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands (2016–17), Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, France (2017), Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (2017–18); Alice Neel: The Subject and Me, Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh, UK (2016); Alice Neel: Intimate Relations, Nordiska Akvarellmuseet, Skarhamn, Sweden (2013); Alice Neel: Painted Truths, a retrospective that toured to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, USA (2010), the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK (2010) and the Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden (2010–11); Collector of Souls at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2008) and Alice Neel, organised by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA and travelling to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (2000).

Neel’s work is in the collections of major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Tate, London, UK; the Art Institute of Chicago, USA; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA; the Denver Art Museum, USA; the Milwaukee Art Museum, USA; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA.