Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle – with Katy Hessel

The largest exhibition to date in the UK of American artist Alice Neel (1900–1984) whose vibrant 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.

Katy Hessel is an art historian, curator, broadcaster and bestselling author of The Story of Art Without Men. She runs @thegreatwomenartists Instagram account and hosts The Great Women Artists Podcast.

The Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle exhibition is open at the Barbican until Sun 21 May 2023.