Alex Katz - Pictures, Art, Photography

Alex Katz

Background Information about Alex Katz

Introduction

Laura 5

Katz‘ portrait of Laura Halzack - prima ballerina of the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York City - captivates with its breathtaking elegance as well as its interplay of color, surface, and form. Unusual for Katz is the deliberate reduction to black and white tones, as in photography. This means of expression, together with the intense gaze of the dancer in focus gives the work an extraordinary aura and very lively presence. The image produces a moment of suspense, detached from the flow of movement yet filled with introspection. The dancer stands out amongst her surroundings and catches the viewer’s eye, while the dark background becomes the abstract sounding board for the portrait. The refined facial features, the proud posture, the dancer's distant gaze appear simultaneously iconic and human, reminiscent of a classic cinematic close-up.

- Stephan Reisner

About the Artist
Alex Katz (American, b.1927) is renowned for his figurative paintings, which examine the nature of representing the three-dimensional world on canvas in simplified portraits and landscapes. Katz was born in Brooklyn; he attended the Cooper Union School of Art in New York, and then studied art at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME. Amidst the height of Abstract Expressionism in the United States, Katz painted representational works, but in the 1950s, his quick, expressive brushstrokes represented the influence of artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning on his work. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, his adherence to simplified forms and to careful studies of light, flatness, and color are particularly evident in his work. His allegiance to figuration and his embrace of the two-dimensional surface prefigured these features in Pop Art in the 1960s.

Katz also worked with collage, printmaking, and set design, increasingly concentrating on these media and developing freestanding sculptural collages through the 1970s. He later painted large-scale landscapes, developing “environments” in his works intended to envelop and immerse the viewer, and continues working with natural themes in his works today. Katz has held solo exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, at the Jewish Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga in Spain, among other venues, and has received several honors for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He currently lives and works in New York and Maine.

Bio

Alex Katz was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1927. After earning a degree at the Cooper Union School of Art, he went on to advanced studies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. In addition to prominent exhibitions across the USA and Europe, his work has earned him numerous awards and accolades, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a St. Gaudens Medal in Art, a Cooper Union Professional Achievement Citation, and a Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin.

Awards

2007Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy Museum, New York
1987Pratt Institute's Mary Buckley Award for Achievement and the Queens Museum of Art Award for Lifetime Achievement
1985Award for Art in Public Places, Chicago Bar Association
1972John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for Painting

Collections

Katz is represented in over 100 public collections worldwide, including: Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Brooklyn Museum; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville; Des Moines Art Center; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Milwaukee Art Museum; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.



Exhibitions

2022Alex Katz Retrospective, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA       
Alex Katz: Dance and Theatre Collaborations, Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, USA
Alex Katz, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
Alex Katz Flowers, Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul, South Korea
2021Alex Katz New Paintings, Gladstone Gallery, New York, USA; Beijing, China
Alex Katz - Floating Worlds curated by Eric de Chassey, Thaddaeus Ropac Pantin, Paris, France
Alex Katz, Tramps, New York, USA
2020Alex Katz, Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, China
Alex Katz, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK
Alex Katz Trees, Sant'Andrea de Scaphis, Rome, Italy
2019Bigger is Better, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany
Monica De Cardenas, Zuoz, Switzerland
Alex Katz: Flowers, Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, USA
Alex Katz / Moby Dick, Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, USA
Focus on: Alex Katz, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, USA
Alex Katz, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, South Korea
Red Dancers, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
2018Dancers and Models, Lotte Museum of Art, Songpa-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Alex Katz, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany
Small Paintings, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, USA
Three Paintings, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, USA
A Life in Print, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue , USA
Cut outs, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, USA
2017Alex Katz: Black and White, Tampa Museum of art, Tampa, USA
Brand- New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950s, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland; Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, USA
Cartoons, Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid, Spain
Subway Drawings, Timoty Taylor, New York, USA
Cartoons, Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid, Spain
Dancers, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
2016Alex Katz: small paintings and drawings, Monica de Cardenas, Milano, Italy
New Landscapes, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Paris, France
Alex Katz: Small paintings, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Maine, USA
Brand New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950s, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, USA
Present Tense: Sixty Years of Master Drawings, Richard Gray Gallery, New York, USA
2015This is Now, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA; Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain
Alex Katz at the Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Black Paintings, Timothy Gallery, London, UK
2014Alex Katz: 45 Years of Portraits, 1969–2014, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
ARTIST ROOMS Alex Katz, Tate Modern, London, UK
Drawings, cartoons, paintings, Albertina, Wien, Austria
Alex Katz: Red Hat, Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid, Spain
2013Alex Katz New York/Maine, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria
Landscapes, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland
Alex Katz & Felix Vallotton, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
Alex Katz: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, USA
2012Der perfekte Augenblick, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany
Essl Museum, Wien, Austria
Alex Katz Prints, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA
2011Cool Prints, Jewish Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA
2010Prints, Paintings, Cutouts, Kunsthalle Würth, Schwäbisch Hall, Wien, Austria
Seeing, Drawing, Making, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, USA
National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2009An American Way of Seeing, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve, Germany
Museo delle Arti di Catanzaro (MARCA), Catanzaro, Italy 
2007Alex Katz in European Collections, The Langen Foundation Neuss, Germany
Alex Katz: New York, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
One Flight Up, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK
2006Woodcut and Linocuts, Colby College Museum of Modern Art, Waterville, USA
Alex Katz Paints Ada, Jewish Museum, New York
2005Alex Katz in Maine. Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, USA
2004Cartoons and Paintings. Albertina Museum, Wien, Austria
2003Cut-outs. Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Portraits. Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy
2002In Your Face. Kunst-und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington, USA
Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin, Germany
2000Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Regarding Alex Katz. Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, USA
1999Change of Scene. Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Brazil
Contemporary Art Centre, Long Island City, New York, USA
1998Twenty Five Years of Painting The Saatchi Collection, London, UK
Under the Stars: American Landscape 1951-1995. P.S.1, USA
1996A Drawing Retrospective, Wanderausstellung des Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, USA
Institute for Contemporary Art/P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, USA
Dawn. Peter Blum, New York, USA
1995American Landscape. Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany
1993Rubenstein/Diacono, New York, USA
1992Drawings 1946-1989. Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, USA
1991Small Paintings. Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, USA
A Drawing Retrospective. Museum of Art, Munson-Williams- Proctor Institute, Utica, New York Traveled to Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, March; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, USA
1990Paintings, Drawings and Cutouts. Orlando Museum of Art, Florida, USA
Making Faces: Self-Portraits by Alex Katz. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. Traveled to The Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey, J.B. Speed Art Museum of Art, New Jersey, J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, USA
1989Recent Paintings.Institute of Contemporary arts, London, UK
1988A Print Retrospective. The Brooklyn Museum, New York The Seibu Museum of Art, The Seed Hall, Tokyo, Traveled to Nocturnal Paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, USA
1985William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, Rockland, USA
Paintings by Alex Katz. Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, USA Twelve Hours. Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, USA
Schupf. Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine and Bowdoin. USA
1981Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA
Paintings and Drawings 1959-79. Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA
1980Salinas, California. Traveled to University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
1978Alex Katz in the Seventies. Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
1977Recent Paintings. Fresno Arts Center and Museum, California, USA
Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada
Galerie Roger d'Amécourt, Paris, France
1975Marlborough Fine Art, London, UK
1974Recent Works from the Collection of Paul J. Schupf. The Picker Art Gallery, Charles A. Dana Creative Arts Center, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA
    Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA
Prints. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Traveled to Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, University Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, USA
1973Marlborough Gallery, New York, USA
1972Reed College Art Gallery, Portland, USA
1971Galerie Brusberg, Hannover, Deutschland
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Traveled to The Art Gallery, USA
Museum of Art, St. Paul; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, USA
University of California, San Diego; Minnesota, USA
1969Alex Katz at Cheat Lake. Mont Chateau Lodge, West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA
Presented by West Virginia University and the West Virginia Arts and Humanities Council, USA
1964Fischbach Gallery, New York, USA
1963Thibaut Gallery, New York, USA
1962Flat Statues. Tanager Gallery, New York, USA
The Set for 'George Washington Crossing the Delaware', USA
Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, USA
1960Stable Gallery, New York, USA
1959Tanager Gallery, New York, USA
1958The Sun Gallery, Provincetown, USA
1954Paintings. Roko Gallery, New York, USA

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