Forest
View Similar Items
Alex KatzForest2008
2008
About the Item
- Creator:Alex Katz (1927, American)
- Creation Year:2008
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Santa Monica, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: KAT0011stDibs: G11061748189
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 opened a major retrospective of his art.
Find Alex Katz art today on 1stDibs.
- Maurice de Vlaminck - House in Rueil - Original LithographBy Maurice de VlaminckLocated in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CHMaurice de Vlaminck Original Lithograph Signed in the plate 1958 Title: House in Beauce Dimensions: 22 x 27 cm Reference: Catalogue raisonné Walterskirchen 275 Condition : Excellent Maurice de Vlaminck (1876 - 1958) Maurice was three years old when his family moved from Paris to Vésinet. He first pursued the same musical career as his parents, who were both musicians, leaving his home as a trained double-bass player in 1892 to move to Chatou near Versailles. After absolving his military service in Vitré Maurice Vlaminck worked as a musician until he accidentally met André Derain in 1900. It was Derain who kindled Vlaminck's artistic ambitions. He decided to become a painter and rented an old hut in which he and Derain shared a studio. A crucial turning point in Vlaminck's artistic development was a visit to a van Gogh exhibition...Category
1950s Impressionist Landscape Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- In the Floating World - Portfolio of 16By Yoshitomo NaraLocated in Tokyo, 13LOT:20221109N01 Reworked woodcut, Fuji Xerox copy Each signed, dated and numbered Each edition 9 of 50 Each 41.5 x 29.5 cm Publisher: Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo Provenance: Phillips Auction...Category
1990s Figurative Prints
MaterialsWoodcut
- Mending the TearsBy Winslow HomerLocated in New York, NYWinslow Homer created this etching entitled “MENDING THE TEARS” in 1888. This is a lifetime impression signed by Homer and printed by the famous New York etcher George W. H. Ritchie...Category
1880s American Impressionist Figurative Prints
MaterialsEtching
- J.H. Woods’ Fruit Shop, ChelseaBy James Abbott McNeill WhistlerLocated in New York, NYJames Whistler (1834-1903), J.H. Woods’ Fruit Shop, Chelsea, etching and drypoint, 1887-88. Signed with the butterfly on the tab and annotated “imp,” also signed with the butterfly in pencil verso and numbered “1”. References: Kennedy 265 second state (of 2), Glasgow 327 second state (of 4). Trimmed by the artist around the plate mark except for the tab, in excellent condition. Printed in black ink on ivory laid paper, 3 3/4 x 5 1/8 inches. A fine impression of this great rarity; the print was never published. Glasgow accounts for four impressions. watermark: partial arms of Amsterdam(cf. Spink/Stratis/Tedeschi, watermark nos. 12ff.) This is before the third state in which heavy shading was added around the woman at the center, and the heads of figures at right and left of the figure are defined. In Glasgow’s fourth state the shading and the figure were removed; no impression is known of this state, but the state is inferred from the cancelled plate. According to Glasgow “Joseph Henry Wood had a greengrocer’s shop at 1 Park Walk...Category
1880s Impressionist Landscape Prints
MaterialsEtching, Drypoint
- Toulouse Lautrec Original Lithograph Famous Political 1800s Collection SignedBy Henri de Toulouse-LautrecLocated in Milwaukee, WI"Lautrec Book: From Au Pied du Sinai written by Georges Clemenceau" lithographs created by the legendary Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. This book, Au Pied...Category
1890s Post-Impressionist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Mulberry Paper
- Circus Night.By Martin LewisLocated in New York, NYSigned in pencil by the artist. Drypoint and sandground, 1933. Edition 100, recorded impressions 43. Of the forty-three recorded impressions printed, a group of those were unsigne...Category
1930s Realist Landscape Prints
MaterialsDrypoint