Alice Neel: I Am the Century

From Friday, October 31, 2025, to Monday, April 6, 2026, Pinacoteca Agnelli presents the first retrospective in Italy dedicated to American artist Alice Neel (Marion Square, PA 1900 – New York 1984), one of the most significant painters of the 20th century. Alice Neel: I Am the Century , curated by Sarah Cosulich and Pietro Rigolo, offers an engaging perspective on the artist's work, highlighting her pioneering vision and her interest in humanity in all its forms.

Alice Neel is one of the great pioneers of the 20th century, a revolutionary painter whose approach to portraiture addressed fundamental human, social, and political issues well ahead of her time. Thanks to her unique painting style, characterized by a spontaneous yet precise way of conveying the nature and profound character of her models, Alice Neel's work continues to influence generations of artists today. Blending realism and surrealism, with a severe gaze and emphatic brushstrokes, Neel succeeded in reading the human soul in its most hidden depths.

Following a chronological timeline spanning seven decades of the 20th century, I Am the Century at the Pinacoteca Agnelli explores the idea of ​​Alice Neel as a "chronicler of life" and her paintings as representations of the "human comedy". Structured in six chapters that intertwine with her biography, the project highlights the artist's unique relationship with her subjects and their life stories, from birth to death, through growth into adulthood, the development of sexuality, the creation of relationships and bonds, but also the formation of a civic and political conscience.

The exhibition explores the evolution of the artist's style over time, indirectly emphasizing how his revolutionary practice engages with the historical canons of portraiture and the traditional male perspective, which is also represented in the Permanent Collection of the Pinacoteca Agnelli.

The exhibition Alice Neel: I Am the Century is developed in close collaboration with the Alice Neel Archive.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication that offers a critical and in-depth reading of Alice Neel's humanism, tracing a journey through her artistic and personal life. The publication includes essays by academics and artists, enriched by extensive illustrations, archival photographs, and documents.

Learn more at Pinacoteca Agnelli.