Alex KatzBlack Brook1992
1992
About the Item
- Creator:Alex Katz (1927, American)
- Creation Year:1992
- Dimensions:Height: 30.25 in (76.84 cm)Width: 67 in (170.18 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU293211030792
Alex Katz
Flat color and minimal forms contrast the often monumental scales of the paintings by Alex Katz through which he creates portraits and landscapes of deceptive simplicity. Although the signature stark style that defines his prints and other work is now recognizable at a glance, it took him a decade to develop. During that time, he has said he destroyed hundreds of paintings.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian émigré parents, Katz’s family moved to Queens when he was a baby and that is where his family’s passion for the arts supported his early creative interests. In 1946, he enrolled at the Cooper Union in Manhattan where he studied painting under Morris Kantor. While he was influenced by the bold colors and hard edges of modernism, he shifted away from the then-dominant Abstract Expressionism movement to figurative scenes of life that have an inherent cool in their pared-down approach. Especially impactful were Katz’s summer studies between 1949 and 1950 at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, a place where, as he later wrote: “I tried plein air painting and found my subject matter and a reason to devote my life to painting.”
Katz’s first solo show was in 1954 at Roko Gallery in New York. He experimented over the course of the following years with collage and painting on aluminum sheets, with his work in the 1960s drawing inspiration from film and advertising. In the 1970s, Katz expanded into portrait groups that regularly depicted the cultural scene of New York; in the 1980s, he extended his focus to fashion and its supermodels. Since the late 1950s, an enduring muse for his portraits has been his wife, Ada, while others have painted friends and famous figures. The intimate closeness of the frequently cropped faces in Katz’s portraits exudes a sense of tension with the subjects’ enigmatic expressions and planes of color.
In the 1960s, Katz collaborated with American dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor on sets and costumes. His concentration on landscapes emerged in the late 1980s, with atmospheric night views joining his practice, which had previously been defined by bright colors. Always finding new perspectives on his work, he has explored using iPhone photographs as the basis for large-scale compositions in recent years.
Katz’s prolific career has spanned sculpture, prints and public art along with his paintings and drawings, and his works can be found in the collections of leading museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Modern Art. He has had over 250 solo exhibitions around the world and continues to be acclaimed. In 2022, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum plans to open a major retrospective of his art.
Find Alex Katz art today on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- IrisBy Lowell NesbittLocated in New York, NYLowell Nesbitt Iris, 1974 Aquatint, edition of 50 42 x 30 in. Lowell Nesbitt was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1933. Nesbitt’s prints, paintings, and sculptures incorporate imagery...Category
1970s Abstract Landscape Prints
MaterialsAquatint
- Big IslandBy Mark Strand (artist)Located in New York, NYMark Strand Big Island, 1998 etching and aquaint 28 1/2 x 26 1/2 in. (72.4 x 67.3 cm)Category
1990s Landscape Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint
- Twilight IBy Alex KatzLocated in New York, NYAlex Katz Twilight I, 1978 silkscreen, edition of 50 42 x 33 in. (106.7 x 83.8 cm)Category
1970s Pop Art Landscape Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Sunset: Lake Wesserunsett IIBy Alex KatzLocated in New York, NYAlex Katz Sunset: Lake Wesserunsett II, 1972 screenprint, edition of 60 30 x 36 in. (76.2 x 91.4 cm)Category
1970s Pop Art Landscape Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Pie CaseBy Wayne ThiebaudLocated in New York, NYWayne THIEBAUD Pie Case, 1964 Edition AP Drypoint on BFK Rives paper Image: 3 7/8 x 4 7/8 in. Sheet: 15 x 11 in. Signed in pencil, dated and inscribed "artist's proof" aside from th...Category
1960s Pop Art Landscape Prints
MaterialsDrypoint
- After Constable's ElmBy Lucian FreudLocated in New York, NYetching edition of 46 + 12 AP image: 12 3/8 x 9 in. (31.4 x 22.9 cm) sheet: 21 1/4 x 15 in. (54 x 38.1 cm) framed: 20 3/4 x 16 3/4 in. (52.7 x 42.5 cm) Printed on Somerset White pape...Category
Early 2000s Naturalistic Landscape Prints
MaterialsEtching
- Guggenheim (Black)By Richard HamiltonLocated in London, GBPerspex form, vacuum formed acrylic and spray painted black, 1970, signed and dated verso, from the edition of 106, although an edition of 750 was planned it was not fully executed, published by xartcollection, Zurich, 59 x 59 x 9.8 cm. (23.2 x 23.2 x 3.9 in.) In 1970 British-Pop artist Richard Hamilton was invited to produce an edition of 750 small-scale multiples of the Guggenheim. The intention was to produce vacuum-form reliefs in Perspex and offset the costs of expensive molds by creating a large edition. In the end, the project proved more technically difficult than anticipated. Of the three colours (black, white and chrome), only a total of 271 were realised, 117 in white. The xartcollection was created in 1968 in Zurich, Switzerland by Sandro Bocola...Category
1970s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint
- Donald Baechler Potted Plant 2005 (Donald Baechler Prints)By Donald BaechlerLocated in NEW YORK, NYDonald Baechler, Potted Plant, 2005 A fun, whimsical, and highly decorative signed limited edition Baechler piece that works well in any setting. Medium: Aquatint and drypoint on ...Category
Early 2000s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsDrypoint, Aquatint
- River TurnsBy Wayne ThiebaudLocated in Laguna Beach, CAWayne Thiebaud has long been recognized as one of America’s most prominent modern artists. Probably best known for his straightforward, deadpan still-life paintings of the 1960s, and...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Landscape Prints
MaterialsDrypoint, Etching
- Study for Tongue Cloud, Claes Oldenburg surreal pop art landscape red and blackBy Claes OldenburgLocated in New York, NYClaes Oldenburg straddles the playful and the obscene in this colorful, spontaneous etching depicting an enormous tongue emerging from the clouds. When printing “à la poupée”, multip...Category
Late 20th Century Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsEtching
- Tree & HandkerchiefBy K.B. (Kyu-Baik ) HwangLocated in Ljubljana, SITree & Handkerchief. Original color aquatint and etching, 1978. Edition of A.P. (artist’s proof) signed and numbered impressions on Arches paper. Kyu-Baik Hwang is contemporary painter and printmaker, from South Korea. He served in the military during the Korean War, and after the war he began to paint. Latter, he traveled across Europe and America and got inspired by many of their cultures and artists. Displacing ordinary objects from their original environments, typical for his works is often compared to Surrealist’s art from the 20th-century. Unlike surrealists, who rejected mind control...Category
1970s Post-Modern Landscape Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint
- My VillageBy Ivan RabuzinLocated in Ljubljana, SIMy Village. Original aquatint, 1981. Ivan Rabuzin was a Croatian naive painter and one of the most eminent lyric painters of the 20th century in Croatia. For many years he worked as ...Category
1980s Landscape Prints
MaterialsAquatint