Author(s): Alex Katz

Art and Photography

Alex Katz is a towering figure in contemporary painting, a key New York-based artist since the early 1960s. Katz was an independent figure during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism and Pop when he first emerged -- and remains a unique, though highly influential figure to this day. Alex Katz is best known for his distinct portraits of sophisticated, irresistible women, masterfully painted using precise, broad areas of colour. Alongside these unmistakably 'Katzian' female portraits are portraits of men, group portraits, landscapes and interiors rendered in painting, drawing, collage and metal cut-outs. All attest to the artist's attention to detail, economy of means and consummate technique. Bigger-than-life paintings such as The Black Dress (1960), Blue Umbrella (1972), Red Coat (1982) and White Visor (2003) have entered the collective conscience as the epitome of a particular, late 20th century feminine ideal: icons of fashion, yet miraculously resilient to the prevailing fashions of contemporary art. Katz has exhibited widely all over the world; a major, touring retrospective originating at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art was held in 1986. Alex Katz's work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., The Tate Gallery, London, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, among many others.