Alice Neel at the Barbican
We were invited to prepare a concept pitch for a new exhibition at the Barbican, showcasing the works of celebrated American artist Alice Neel (1900–1984).
The exhibition was intended to be the largest exhibition to date of the artist in the UK, 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.
Our approach looked to create a sequence of spaces, ranging from the neighbourhood, the home and the individual in order to navigate between the public, private and intimate experiences she captured in her work.
Tags: Culture
Carmen and Judy, Alice Neel, 1972.
Jackie Curtis and Ritta Redd, Alice Neel, 1970.
Alice Neel in her studio, 1944.
Self-portrait, Alice Neel, 1980.
