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The main characters of the American artist Alice Neel are the humiliated and insulted. She painted portraits of her neighbors in Spanish Harlem — immigrants, refugees, people on the brink of survival. Sympathy for their fate and a thirst for justice made her join the Communist Party. Neel was even persecuted by the authorities — in the 1950s, leftist views were not welcomed in the United States. In the early 1980s, Alice Neel had an exhibition in Moscow. The artist became famous when the first leaders of the feminist movement became the heroes of her portraits. They were followed by celebrities, whom she painted for the covers of TIME. However, fame did not prevent her from remaining accessible to old friends and corresponding with some of her subjects. Neel is very well known in the United States, but not in Europe. The exhibition at the Pompidou Center is one of Neel’s first major shows on the continent. ****************** The opinions of the authors and heroes of the programs may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.