Alice Neel. I Am the Century

Pinacoteca Agnelli hosts the first Italian retrospective dedicated to Alice Neel (Marion Square, 1900 - New York, 1984), among the most influential female voices in 20th century art. With Alice Neel. I Am the Century, the museum pays tribute to a painter who transformed the portrait in a form of profound, social and political investigation, restoring dignity to often marginalised subjects and offering a direct, empathetic look, free of idealisation.

Through a pathway that consists of six chapters and embraces beyond seventy years of activity, the exhibition explores the figure of the artist as chronicler of life, He focuses his radical gaze on identity, relationships, the family, the body, sexuality, old age, illness, motherhood, dissent. Each work bears witness to a lived relationship, an authentic encounter, a desire to represent the individual in his or her entirety, without filters or stereotypes.

Alice Neel's style, characterised by free brushstrokes, marked contours and an expressive use of colour, blends psychological realism and visionary sensitivity. His painting, which is strongly autobiographical, opposes the academic tradition and the dominance of the male point of view, providing an alternative and powerful narrative of portraiture.

The exhibition project, realised in collaboration with the’Alice Neel Archive, intertwines with the museum's permanent collection, creating a dialogue between the artist's work and the history of Western painting. The exhibition is accompanied by a critical publication which explores his humanist vision through texts, archive images and unpublished documents.