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 opened a major retrospective of his art.
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1946 "Untitled" oil on canvas painting signed and dated by artist Alex Katz.
By Alex Katz
Located in Boca Raton, FL
"Untitled" oil on canvas painting by artist Alex Katz. Signed and dated A. Katz 46 recto lower right. Painted in 1946, during the period when Katz was studying at Cooper Union in New...
Canvas, Oil
$16,000
Reflection 2
By Alex Katz
Located in Fairfield, CT
Edition of 100 Archival pigment ink on Innova Etching Cotton Rag 315 gsm fine art paper
Archival Ink, Rag Paper
$17,043
H 19.69 in W 32.29 in D 0.79 in
Pair of Romantic Bavarian Paintings by Karl Adolf Wilhelm Chelius - 1889
Located in Roma, IT
Pair of romantic Bavarian paintings is an old master artwork realized in 1889 by the master Karl Adolf Wilhelm Chelius (1856-1923). Mixed colored oil panting on...
Oil, Canvas
$32,910
H 38.98 in W 53.15 in D 2.17 in
The Return from Fishing - Oil Paint by Giovan Battista Filosa - 1908
Located in Roma, IT
The Return from Fishing (Original Title: Il Ritorno dalla Pesca), is an original oil painting realized by Giovan Battista Filosa in 1908. Some fishermen seen from behind, in the blue light of the sky, with the vesuvius in the background, are the protagonists of the painting in "Il ritorno dalla pesca" by Giovan Battista Filosa (Castellamare di Stabia 1850 - Naples 1935) student of the famous Neapolitan painter...
Canvas, Oil
$2,475
H 36 in W 44 in D 2 in
Anza-Borrego Desert California Modernist Large Landscape Framed Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Antique American modernist landscape signed oil painting of the Anza-Borrego desert. Oil on canvas. Framed. Signed. Measuring: 36 by 44 inches overall. In excellent original condit...
Canvas, Oil
$900
H 22.44 in W 26 in D 2 in
The Blue Trees, Oil on Canvas Painting by Claude Richard Mazier
Located in Atlanta, GA
A charming 1950s modernist oil on canvas by Claude Richard Mazier (France, 1926–2011), this composition captures a poetic village scene where architecture and nature merge into a dre...
Canvas, Oil
$1,900
H 25.6 in W 33.08 in D 0.4 in
Large colourful modernist abstract landscape painting Vietnamese American artist
By Ngoc Dung
Located in Norwich, GB
A striking, bold colourist painting by Vietnamese artist Ngoc Dung (1931-2000), dating from circa 1960. His highly individualistic art is hard to categorise. In the artist"s own wor...
Canvas, Oil
$7,800
H 45 in W 45 in D 1.5 in
The Blue Sea Wave, Coastal Contemporary Painting Mixed Media Canvas 45x45"
By Irena Orlov
Located in Los Angeles, CA
One of a kind Mixed Medium on Canvas Artwork: Original abstract mixed media work on canvas, which combines new media - digital original hand painting, printed on canvas, then hand p...
Canvas, Varnish, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Mixed Media
$5,488
H 39.38 in W 39.38 in D 1.58 in
Yellow Neutra House, Richard Neutra Architectural Painting, Hockney inspired art
By Karen Lynn
Located in Deddington, GB
This is a painting from my architectural series of works. I love this Richard Neutra house and enjoyed painting it and adding my style with sun loungers a...
Canvas, Oil
$975
H 21.46 in W 34.26 in
Vintage Mid-Century Modern Expressionist Landscape Oil Painting - Sea Catch
Located in Bristol, GB
SEA CATCH Size: 54.5 x 87 cm (including frame) Oil on Canvas A brilliantly executed and lively mid-century modernist composition in oil, painted onto canvas. In this scene, we see ...
Canvas, Oil
$7,640
H 20.28 in W 25.79 in D 2.17 in
The Wagon of the Coopers in the Gulf of Naples with the Vesuvius on Background
By Consalvo Carelli 1
Located in Roma, IT
Second half of 19th Century. Signed by the artist lower right. Includes a beautiful decorated ancient gilded frame in wood. Excellent conditions.
Canvas, Oil
$1,300
H 24.41 in W 15.75 in
Missouri American Modernist famous in Europe - abstracted mid century Venice
Located in Norwich, GB
Meet the genuinely exciting modernist William Einstein, who is probably better known in Europe, where numerous publications on his work have been written, than in his native US! Eins...
Canvas, Oil
Lyrical Abstract Israeli Expressionist Oil Painting
By Hanna Ben Dov
Located in Surfside, FL
Hanna Ben Dov is an Israeli abstract painter who was born in Jerusalem in 1919 and died in Paris in 2008. Ben Dov's father, Yacov Ben-Dov, was a famous Israeli photographer who founded the photography department in the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in 1910. Hannah herself attended Bezalel during the 1940s, and later continued to Camberwell College of Arts in London. After the completion of her formal education she moved to Paris, where she exhibited for the first time in 1948 and has been living and working there since, as a part of the local abstract artists school. She took part in the first French Biennale of 1951, that was held in Menton. Collections Her paintings can be found in several collections, including the French State Collection, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art collection, the Bezalel National Museum collection in Jerusalem and the Rockefeller Museum collection in New York. Ben Dov resided for her last two years at the Maison Des Artistes Home in Nogent-Sur-Marne, France, just outside Paris. Exhibitions Gallery97 Tel Aviv Paintings...
Canvas, Oil
$2,308
H 15 in W 17 in D 2 in
Wild Daisy Flowers English Countryside Landscape Painting by Contemporary Artist
By Angela Wakefield
Located in Preston, GB
Wild Daisy Flowers English Countryside Landscape Painting by Contemporary Artist, Angela Wakefield Art measures 12 x 10 inches ...
Canvas, Paint, Archival Ink, Acrylic, Board