Alex KatzAriel2021
2021
About the Item
- Creator:Alex Katz (1927, American)
- Creation Year:2021
- Dimensions:Height: 60 in (152.4 cm)Width: 74 in (187.96 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU32613282802
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 PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- Mao #95By Andy WarholLocated in New York, NYMao #95, 1972 screenprint 36 x 36 inches Edition 139 of 250 signed in ball-point pen on verso,stamp-numbered 139/250 published by Castelli Graphicis with artist's copyright sta...Category
1970s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- ArielBy Alex KatzLocated in New York, NYAriel 2021 Silkscreen on Saunders Waterford 425 gsm fine art paper Diptych 60 x 37 inches (153 x 94 cm) each Edition of 60 Suite of 2: $32,000 Single print also available. Please c...Category
2010s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Dancer 1By Alex KatzLocated in New York, NYAlex Katz Dancer 1 2019 Silkscreen in colors on Saunders Waterford HP High White 425 gsm paper 60 x 36 inches (153 x 92 cm) Edition of 60Category
2010s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Donald Baechler, Coney Island 2By Donald BaechlerLocated in New York, NYCONEY ISLAND, 2 Year: 1994 Medium: 9-color silkscreen Size: 29 x 29 inches (74 x 74 cm) Edition: 75 Price: $3,700 Donald Baechler was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1956 and came of age as a painter in the early 1980s when he began exhibiting internationally. Critics have stated that Donald Baechler’s work “places...Category
1990s Contemporary Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Alex Katz 'Big Smile (Vivian)'By Alex KatzLocated in New York, NYAlex Katz (born 1927) Big Smile (Vivien) 2021 Archival pigment ink on Innova Etching Cotton Rag 315 gsm fine art paper 35 x 70 inches (89 x 178 cm) Edition o...Category
2010s Modern Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Alex Katz 'Big Smile (Vivian)'By Alex KatzLocated in New York, NYAlex Katz (born 1927) Big Smile (Vivien) 2021 Archival pigment ink on Innova Etching Cotton Rag 315 gsm fine art paper 35 x 70 inches (89 x 178 cm) Edition of 75/100 With flat plane...Category
2010s Modern Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Phantom LadyBy Mel RamosLocated in New York, NYColorful Pop Art screenprint by Mel Ramos from a limited edition of 100. Signed by Ramos and numbered in pencil. Printed by Accent Studios, Los Angeles. Published by Robert Bane...Category
1980s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Jasper Johns (White)By Shepard FaireyLocated in New York, NYShepard Fairey Jasper Johns (White), 2009 Silkscreen on wove paper 24 × 18 inches Edition 198/450 Pencil signed and numbered 198/450 on the front Unframed Shepard Fairey created this...Category
Early 2000s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsPencil, Screen
- Transparency, signed limited edition print from pioneering British Pop ArtistBy Joe TilsonLocated in New York, NYJoe Tilson Transparency, 1970 Color silkscreen Signed and numbered 166 from the edition of 500 in pencil in upper margin Frame Included: held in the original vintage wood frame A lov...Category
1970s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsScreen, Pencil
- Greta GarboBy Seymour ChwastLocated in New York, NYSeymour Chwast Greta Garbo, 1989 Silkscreen on Rives BFK Hand-signed and numbered 36/200 by artist on the front 44 x 30 inches Unframed This large, dazzling multi color silkscreen is...Category
1980s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Homage to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (signed and inscribed)By Larry RiversLocated in New York, NYLarry Rivers Homage to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, signed and inscribed to Arthur Gold and Robert (Bobby) Fizdale, 1973 Lithograph and Screenprint on Paper Hand signed and inscribed on lo...Category
1970s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Screen
- O'Neill accuses Faulkner of lack of loyalty and support (Nancy & Jim Dine)By R.B. KitajLocated in New York, NYRonald B. (R.B.) Kitaj Nancy and Jim Dine, or O'Neill accuses Faulkner of lack of loyalty and support (Kinsman 40), 1970 16 Color Silkscreen with collage and coating on different wove papers Hand signed and numbered in pencil 29/70 on the front. The back (which is framed) bears the Kelpra Studio blindstamp Frame included: held in the original vintage metal frame Very rare stateside. Other editions of this work are in the permanent collections of major institutions like the British museum, which has the following explanation: "The artist Jim Dine and his wife Nancy were close to Kitaj and his family, especially after the death of Elsi, Kitaj's first wife in 1969. They sometimes stayed with the Dines at their farm in Vermont during Kitaj's second teaching sojourn in the United States. Dine and Kitaj held a joint show at the Cincinnati Museum of Art in 1973. In the catalogue both artists contributed an insightful 'essay' on each other with Dine stressing Kitaj's obsession with all things American and baseball-related...' The alternate title, "O'Neill accuses Faulkner of lack of loyalty and support" can be seen on the artwork itself, and clearly is some kind of inside joke among friends. By the way -- do you see the way the colored dots are placed over the figures? Kitaj was doing this well before Baldessari who made it famous; that's how pioneering he was at the time. Referenced in the catalogue raisonne of Kitaj's prints, Kinsman, 40 Published and printed by Chris Prater of Kelpra Studio, Kentish Town, United Kingdom Ronald Brooks (RB) Kitaj Biography R.B. (Ronald Brooks) Kitaj was born in 1932 in Cleveland Ohio. One of the most prominent painters of his time, particularly in England where he spent some four decades spanning the late 1950s through the late 1990s, Kitaj is considered a key figure in European and American contemporary painting. While his work has been considered controversial, he is regarded as a master draughtsman with a commitment to figurative art. His highly personal paintings and drawings reflect his deep interest in history; cultural, social and political ideologies; and issues of identity. Part of an extraordinary cohort who emerged from the Royal College of Art circa 1960, which included Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, and David Hockney, Kitaj was immediately pegged as one of its leading figures. The London Times greeted his first solo show in 1963 as a long-awaited and galvanizing event: “Mr. R.B. Kitaj’s first exhibition, now that it has at last taken place, puts the whole ‘new wave’ of figurative painting in this country during the last two or three years into perspective.” In 1976, KItaj curated the exhibition The Human Clay, and in the essay he wrote for it he proposed the existence of a “School of London”—a label which stuck to a group of painters that includes Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Leon Kossoff, Michael Andrews...Category
1970s Pop Art Figurative Prints
MaterialsMixed Media, Screen, Pencil