American painter and
graphic artist, best known for his unique REALIST
style.
Trained at the Cooper Union School of Art in New
York, and then at the Skowhegan School of Painting
and Sculpture in Maine from 1949-50. In 1972 he
was awarded the Guggenheim Grant in Painting.
Alex Katz is one of the most important American
artists to have emerged since 1950. Throughout his
career, which now spans more than thirty years,
Katz has produced a remarkable and impressive body
of work that constitutes a unique aspect of modern
realism.
In the words of Richard Marshall, Associate Curator
of Exhibitions of the Whitney Museum of American
Art: "Portraits have been the mainstay of Katz's
paintings since the late 1950's - especially of
his wife, Ada, son, Vincent, and a circle of friends
composed of artists, poets, critics and dancers.
Katz's portraits form a new and distinctive type
of realism in American art which combines aspects
of both abstraction and representation. His work
is characterized by flatly painted, dramatically
cropped, oversize heads that recall movies, advertising
and billboards. Katz's concern is not with an emotional
narrative, but with the style of portraiture - with
giving the traditional genre to posed portraits
an expansive, contemporary look."
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