Stockholm, Sweden – The American artist Alice Neel (1900-1984) is the first to be featured in the new exhibition series Moderna Museet Now. Her imposing portraits and self-portraits earned her influence and acclaim, despite private and professional hardships. In the 1950s, she was under investigation for alleged contacts with the Communist Party. In the years when pop art and abstract expressionism dominated the art scene, her psychologically realistic style was not in great repute, and she lived on welfare.