Art
Andrea Marechal Watson rounds up shows in Paris, Bilbao, Basel, London and looks at the concept of 'edutainment'
Alice Neel People Come First Continuing to redress the imbalance
between male and female artists, the Guggenheim Bilbao has chosen to mount the very first retrospective in Spain of American artist Alice Neel (1900–1984). One of the century’s most radical painters, Neel was a champion of social justice whose humanist principles inspired her life as well as her art, as demonstrated in the 100 paintings, drawings, and watercolours that will appear in this survey. Images of activists demonstrating against fascism and racism appear alongside paintings of impoverished victims of the Great Depression, as well as portraits of Neel’s neighbours in Spanish Harlem, leaders from a wide range of political organisations, queer artists and performers, and members of New York’s global diaspora. The exhibition also features Neel's candid and erotic watercolours and Alice Neel
pastels of mothers and nudes, highly
Elenka | 1936 | Oil on canvas
unusual for a female artist in the 1930s.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA, New York
Neel returned again and again to
© The Estate of Alice Neel
the streets of New York for her subject matter and to the diversity, resilience, and passion of its residents. “For me, people
From 17th September to 6th February 6, 2022 at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
tried to assert the dignity and eternal
www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus
importance of the human being.”
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come first,” Neel declared in 1950. “I have
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16/08/2021 11:57