Alice Neel in RADICAL! Women Artists and Modernism 1910-1950
8 February—18 May 2025
Group Exhibition at Saarland Museum, Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken, Germany
The Museum Arnhem, the Saarland Museum, and the Belvedere, Vienna, present the traveling exhibition RADICAL! Female Artists and Modernism 1910–1950, showcasing more than 60 female artists from 20 countries. The project questions the notion of modern art as a linear, primarily male-driven development. Instead, the exhibition brings female artists of diverse backgrounds (the term “female artists” is used to indicate the possible gender diversity within the group of people represented in the exhibition) into dialogue, opening up new perspectives on the diversity and transnational dimension of modernism.
The exhibition project breaks with the idea of a succession of avant-garde movements and frees female artists from the art-historical framework that has contributed significantly to their invisibility in the narrative of modernism. Rather than perpetuating stylistic classifications, the show aims to highlight the individuality of each artist's practice, whose spectrum ranges from abstract to figurative, from critical to activist positions. In their work, the artists questioned traditional gender roles, addressed the challenges of emancipation, and imagined possible identities outside of dominant models. Bringing together paintings, drawings, sculptures, architectural and stage designs, textile designs, films, and other media, the exhibition does justice to the versatility of its protagonists and makes their quest for an expanded concept of art tangible. By focusing on the innovative work of women artists, the exhibition aims to contribute to painting a more diverse picture of modernism and to making the revolutionary spirit of its creators tangible.