Alex Katz
Alex Katz | |
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Alex Katz (born July 24, 1927) is an American
Early life and career
Alex Katz was born July 24, 1927, to a Jewish family[1] in Brooklyn, New York, as the son of an émigré who had lost a factory he owned in Russia to the Soviet revolution.[2] In 1928 the family moved to St. Albans, Queens, where Katz grew up.[3]
From 1946 to 1949 Katz studied at the
Katz has admitted to destroying a thousand paintings during his first ten years as a painter in order to find his style. Since the 1950s, he worked to create art more freely in the sense that he tried to paint "faster than [he] can think."[7] His works seem simple, but according to Katz they are more reductive, which is fitting to his personality.[8] "(The) one thing I don't want to do is things already done. As for particular subject matter, I don't like narratives, basically."[9]
Work
Katz achieved great public prominence in the 1980s.
Artistic style
Katz's paintings are divided almost equally into the genres of portraiture and landscape. Since the 1960s he has painted views of New York (especially his immediate surroundings in Soho) and landscapes of Maine, where he spends several months every year, as well as portraits of family members, artists, writers and New York society protagonists.
In the early 1960s, influenced by films, television, and billboard advertising, Katz began painting large-scale paintings, often with dramatically cropped faces. Ada Katz, whom he married in 1958, has been the subject of over 250[15] portraits throughout his career.[16] To make one of his large works, Katz paints a small oil sketch of a subject on a masonite board; the sitting might take an hour and a half. He then makes a small, detailed drawing in pencil or charcoal, with the subject returning, perhaps, for the artist to make corrections. Katz next blows up the drawing into a "cartoon", sometimes using an overhead projector, and transfers it to an enormous canvas via "pouncing"—a technique used by Renaissance artists, involving powdered pigment pushed through tiny perforations pricked into the cartoon to recreate the composition on the surface to be painted. Katz pre-mixes all his colors and gets his brushes ready. Then he dives in and paints the canvas—12 feet (3.7 m) wide by 7 feet (2.1 m) high or even larger—in a session of six or seven hours.
Beginning in the late 1950s, Katz developed a technique of painting on cut panels, first of wood, then aluminum, calling them "cutouts". These works would occupy space like sculptures, but their physicality is compressed into planes, as with paintings.[17] In later works, the cutouts are attached to wide, U-shaped aluminum stands, with a flickering, cinematic presence enhanced by warm spotlights. Most are close-ups, showing either front-and-back views of the same figure's head or figures who regard each other from opposite edges of the stand.[18]
After 1964, Katz increasingly portrayed groups of figures. He would continue painting these complex groups into the 1970s, portraying the social world of painters, poets, critics, and other colleagues that surrounded him. He began designing sets and costumes for choreographer Paul Taylor in the early 1960s, and he has painted many images of dancers throughout the years. One Flight Up (1968) consists of more than 30 portraits of some of the leading lights of New York's intelligentsia during the late 1960s, such as the poet John Ashbery, the art critic Irving Sandler and the curator Henry Geldzahler, who championed Andy Warhol. Each portrait is painted using oils on both sides of a sliver of aluminum that has then been cut into the shape of the subject's head and shoulders. The silhouettes are arranged predominantly in four long rows on a plain metal table.[19]
After his
Printmaking
In 1965, Katz also embarked on a prolific career in printmaking. Katz would go on to produce many editions in lithography, etching, silkscreen, woodcut and linoleum cut, producing over 400 print editions in his lifetime. The Albertina, Vienna, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, hold complete collections of Katz' print oeuvre. A print catalogue raisonné is due for release by the Albertina in the fall of 2011.
During his time as a visiting artist at the University of Pennsylvania, Katz approached Japanese artist and printmaker, Hitoshi Nakazato, who was an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Fine Art, to make a series of prints. [22]
Public commissions
In 1977, Katz was asked to create a work to be produced in billboard format above
Collaborations
Katz has collaborated with poets and writers since the 1960s, producing several notable editions such as "Face of the Poet"[25] combining his images with poetry from his circle, such as Ted Berrigan, Ann Lauterbach, Carter Ratcliff, and Gerard Malanga. He has worked with the poet John Ashbery, creating publications entitled "Fragment"[26] in 1966 and "Coma Berenices".[27] in 2005. He has worked with Vincent Katz on "A Tremor in the Morning"[28] and "Swimming Home".[29] Katz also made 25 etchings for the Arion Press edition of Gloria with 28 poems by Bill Berkson. Other collaborators include Robert Creeley, with whom he produced "Edges"[30] and "Legeia: A Libretto",[31] and Kenneth Koch, producing "Interlocking Lives".[32] In 1962, Harper's Bazaar incorporated numerous wooden cutouts by Katz for a four-page summer fashion spread.
Numerous publications outline Katz's career's many facets: from Alex Katz in Maine[33] published by the Farnsworth Art Museum to the catalogue Alex Katz New York,[34] published by the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Alex Katz Seeing Drawing, Making,[35] published in 2008, describes Katz's multiple-stage process of first producing charcoal drawings, small oil studies, and large cartoons for placing the image on the canvas and the final painting of the canvas. In 2005, Phaidon Press published an illustrated survey, Alex Katz, by Carter Ratcliff, Robert Storr and Iwona Blazwick. In 1989, a special edition of Parkett was devoted to Katz, showing that he is now considered a major reference for younger painters and artists.[36] Over the years, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Liam Gillick, Peter Halley, David Salle and Richard Prince have written essays about his work or conducted interviews with him.[37]
Exhibitions
Since 1951, Katz's work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions and nearly 500 group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally.
Katz is represented by
The prints of Alex Katz are distributed in Europe by Galerie Frank Fluegel in Nuremberg. A retrospective of his work is currently (June - October 2022) on display at the Thyssen National Museum of Spain, the first time Katz´s work has been displayed in that country.
Collections
Katz's work is in the collections of over 100 public institutions worldwide, including the
Recognition
Throughout his career, Katz has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for Painting in 1972, and in 1987, both Pratt Institute's Mary Buckley Award for Achievement and the Queens Museum of Art Award for Lifetime Achievement. The Chicago Bar Association honored Katz with the Award for Art in Public Places in 1985. In 1978, Katz received a U.S. government grant to participate in an educational and cultural exchange with the USSR.[45] Katz was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Painting in 1972. Katz was inducted by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1988, and recognized with honorary doctorates by Colby College, Maine (1984), and Colgate University, Hamilton, New York (2005). In 1990 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an associate member, and became a full Academician in 1994. He was named the Philip Morris Distinguished Artist at the American Academy in Berlin in 2001 and received the Cooper Union Annual Artist of the City Award in 2000. In addition to this honor, in 1994 Cooper Union Art School created the Alex Katz Visiting Chair in Painting with an endowment provided by the sale of ten paintings donated by the artist, a position first held by the painter and art critic Merlin James.[46] In 2005, Katz was the honored artist at the Chicago Humanities Festival's Inaugural Richard Gray Annual Visual Arts Series. In 2007, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Design, New York.[38]
In October 1996, the Colby College Museum of Art opened a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) wing dedicated to Katz that features more than 400 oil paintings, collages, and prints donated by the artist.[47] In addition, he has purchased numerous pieces for the museum by artists such as Jennifer Bartlett, Chuck Close, Francesco Clemente, and Elizabeth Murray. In 2004, he curated a show at Colby of younger painters Elizabeth Peyton, Peter Doig and Merlin James, who work in the same figurative territory staked out by Katz.[2]
In 1996, Vincent Katz and Vivien Bittencourt produced a video titled Alex Katz: Five Hours, documenting the production of his painting January 3,[48] and in 2008 he was the subject of a documentary directed by Heinz Peter Schwerfel, entitled What About Style? Alex Katz: a Painter's Painter.
Legacy
Katz' work is said to have influenced many painters, such as David Salle, Helena Wurzel, Peter Halley and Richard Prince,[13] as well as younger artists like Peter Doig, Julian Opie, Liam Gillick, Elizabeth Peyton, Barb Januszkiewicz, Johan Andersson,[19] and Brian Alfred.[15] Furthermore, it has become ubiquitous in advertising and graphic design.[citation needed]
Notes and references
- ^ Snider, Suzanne, "Why do Alex Katz's elegant canvases strike critics as the ultimate in WASP art?", Tablet, A New Read on Jewish Life, November 21, 2006
- ^ a b c Cathleen McGuigan (August 2009), Alex Katz Is Cooler Than Ever Archived 2010-11-29 at the Wayback Machine Smithsonian Magazine.
- ^ a b ALEX KATZ: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art, June 29 - October 13, 2013 Archived September 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor.
- ^ a b Alex Katz. "Alex Katz". Phaidon, 2005. p. 210.
- ^ Grace Glueck (September 9, 2005), Clever Collages and Quiet Maine Scenes: Two Sides of Alex Katz The New York Times.
- ^ "Alex Katz in Conversation with Phong Bui". Brooklyn Rail. May 2009.
- ^ Shama, Simon, Dave Hickey, Alanna Heiss. "Alex Katz Under the Stars: American Landscapes 1951–1995" (exh. cat.). New York: The Institute for Contemporary Art/ P. S. 1 Museum, 1996.
- ^ Robert Ayers (January 18, 2006), National Alex Katz, ARTINFO, retrieved 2008-04-16
- ^ David Salle (March 4, 2013), In Conversation, The Brooklyn Rail, retrieved 2013-07-22
- ^ Alex Katz Museum of Modern Art, New York.
- ^ Alex Katz, Lilies Against Yellow House (1983) National Galleries of Scotland.
- Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris.
- ^ a b Alex Katz, 19 May – 23 September 2012 Archived 4 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Tate St Ives.
- Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris.
- ^ a b Martha Schwendener (August 29, 2013), Overcoming the Orthodoxy of Abstraction The New York Times.
- ^ Lawrence Alloway, "Alex Katz Paints Ada". Yale University Press, 2006. p. 93.
- ^ Carter Ratcliff, "Alex Katz, Cutouts" Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2003, p. 26
- ^ Karen Rosenberg (February 13, 2014), Alex Katz / Dara Friedman The New York Times.
- ^ a b Alastair Sooke (May 17, 2010), Alex Katz at the National Portrait Gallery The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Alex Katz, "Invented Symbols", Cantz Verlag, 1997, p. 87
- ^ Cathleen McGuigan (200), National Alex Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, archived from the original on 2010-11-29, retrieved 2011-01-25
- ^ Katz, Alex (1972), Nancy, retrieved 2023-03-27
- ^ "Alex Katz - Public Art".
- ^ "Alex Katz - Public Art".
- ^ Berrigan, Ted et al. (Kenward Elmslie, John Godfrey, Ted Greenwald, Michael Lally, Ann Lauterbach, Gerard Malanga, Alice Notley, John Perreault, Carter Ratcliff, Rene Ricard, Peter Schjeldahl, Tony Towle, Bill Zavatsky) and Alex Katz. "Face of the Poet", New York: Brooke Alexander, Inc., NY and Marlborough Graphics, 1978.
- ^ Ashbery, John and Alex Katz, "Fragment" Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1966
- ^ Ashbery, John and Alex Katz, "Coma Berenices". Photogravure images by Alex Katz; with text by John Ashbery. Tampa: Graphicstudio, Institute for Research in Art, 2005.]
- ^ Katz, Vincent and Alex Katz, "A Tremor In The Morning", New York: Peter Blum Edition, 1986.]
- ^ Katz, Vincent and Alex Katz, "Swimming Home", Photogravure images by Alex Katz with poem by Vincent Katz. Tampa: Graphicstudio/University of South Florida, 2011.
- ^ Creeley, Robert and Alex Katz, "Edges" New York: Peter Blum Edition, 1998.]
- ^ Creeley, Robert, "Ligeia: A Libretto" Set design sketch by Alex Katz. New York and Minneapolis: Granary Books; Hermetic Press, 1996.
- ^ Koch, Kenneth and Alex Katz, "Interlocking Lives" New York: Kulchur Press, 1970.
- ^ Schwartz, Sanford and Vincent Katz. "Alex Katz in Maine". Milan, Italy and Rockland, Maine: Charta; The Farnsworth Art Museum, 2005.
- ^ Bonet, Juan Manuel. New York. Dublin, Ireland: Irish Museum of Modern art and Charta, 2007.
- ^ Moos, David and Kadee Robbins, "Alex Katz Seeing Drawing Making", Windsor Press, 2008.
- ^ [1] Archived 2012-03-12 at the Wayback Machine www.parkettart.com
- ^ "Alex Katz: An American Way of Seeing". Sara Hilden Art Museum, Musee de Grenoble, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, 2009. p. 130.
- ^ a b Alex Katz Timothy Taylor Gallery, London.
- ^ Roberta Smith (May 1, 1998), A 2d Look Reveals Surprises The New York Times.
- ^ Sarah Douglas (September 13, 2011), (When Gavin Brown Met Alex Katz: An Artist's New Show Is At An Unexpected Venue The New York Observer.
- ^ Alex Katz, September 10 – October 08, 2011 Archived October 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York.
- ^ Alex Katz, 4 March - 9 April 2010 Timothy Taylor Gallery, London.
- ^ "ARTIST ROOMS: Alex Katz - Tate". Archived from the original on 2014-10-29. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
- ^ Alex Katz Prints, April 28, 2012 - July 29, 2012 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
- ^ Sara Hilden Art Museum, "Alex Katz: An American Way of Seeing". Sara Hilden Art Museum, Musee de Grenoble, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, 2009. p. 130.
- ^ James, Merlin. "Painting per se" lecture delivered at Cooper Union Great Hall, New York, 28th February 2002.
- ^ colby.edu, accessed September 21, 2007.
- ^ "Alex Katz Films & Videos". Archived from the original on 2011-05-01. Retrieved 2011-01-25. www.alexkatz.com
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-7148-6740-3
- Mark Rappolt, ALEX KATZ: FACE THE MUSIC, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 2011, ISBN 978-3-901935-44-2
- Klaus Albrecht Schröde, ALEX KATZ: PRINTS, Hatje Cantz, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7757-2585-9
- Roland Mönig, Guy Tosatto, Timo Valjakka, Eric de Chassey, ALEX KATZ: AN AMERICAN WAY OF SEEING, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86678-263-1
- David A. Moos, ALEX KATZ: SEEING, DRAWING, MAKING, Windsor Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-9746116-4-8
- Luca Cerizza, ALEX KATZ: FACES AND NAMES, JRP|Ringier, 2008, ISBN 978-3-905770-79-7
- Enrique Juncosa, Juan Manuel Bonet, Rachael Thomas, ALEX KATZ: NEW YORK, Charta / Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2007, ISBN 978-88-8158-634-9
- Barry Schwabsky, ALEX KATZ: THE SIXTIES, Charta, 2006, ISBN 978-88-8158-593-9
- David Cohen, Sharon Corwin, ALEX KATZ: COLLAGES, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9728484-5-9
- ISBN 978-0-7148-4407-7
External links
- Official website
- Alex Katz interviewed by Richard Prince
- 42 artworks by or after Alex Katz at the Art UK site
- Alex Katz Collection at the Colby College Museum of Art
- Alex Katz Collection at the Albertina
- Biography on Magical-Secrets.com
- Artist Alex Katz Featured in J.Crew Catalog
- "Ada with Sunglasses" tapestry by Alex Katz
- Alex Katz in Conversation with Phong Bui (May 2009)
- Alex Katz in Conversation with David Salle(March 2013)