ALEX KATZ (b. 1927, USA)

'Straw Hat 1 (Nicole)', 2022

SIGNED Limited Edition Print

Archival pigment ink print on Innova Etching Cotton Rag 315 gsm fine art paper. Printed by Lococo Fine Art printers, St. Louis, MO. SIGNED and numbered '63/150' in pencil by artist on recto (ll). Dimensions: 36" x 36" (91 x 91 cm) image and sheet. Edition size: 150. Mint condition never framed or displayed (shown are some framed examples).

“Realist painting has to do with leaving out a lot of detail. I think my painting can be a little shocking in all that it leaves out. But what happens is that the mind fills in what’s missing. (…) Painting is a way of making you see what I saw.” – Alex Katz

The American painter, sculptor and printmaker Alex Katz developed his stylized aesthetic in reaction to Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s. His bright figurative paintings typically depict two-dimensional landscapes, marine scenes, flowers, humans or animals. Widely recognized for his role as a precursor to the Pop Art movement, Alex Katz takes cues from everyday visual culture like advertising and cinema. Katz began experimenting with printmaking in the 1950s, which soon evolved to be a central aspect of his artistic practice. In addition to his large-scale paintings, Katz’ oeuvre encompasses a range of print editions employing a variety of techniques, including silkscreens, linoleum cuts, lithographs and etchings.

Alex Katz is one of America's leading painters. His work has been the subject of nearly 200 solo exhibitions since 1954. His portraits and landscapes capture American life in a flat, elegant and realistic style all his own. Now 94, Katz is receiving increased attention with recent solo exhibitions in Spain, Italy, Austria and New York.

Katz is best known for his images of individuals and groups, usually portrayed in social gatherings, that evoke a fashionable moneyed milieu and are rendered in a cool flattened style. His paintings are marked by a simplified line that emphasises forms and colors set against flat backgrounds. He began making figurative paintings in the late 1950's when their iconic quality and emotional distance was totally against the grain of the emotionally heightened and gestural works of the Abstract Expressionists. In the late 1950's he also made his first lino and woodcuts, beginning a life-long interest in printmaking.

In 1986 the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY mounted a major retrospective of his work and he was also shown at P.S.1, Museum, NY in 1998. His work is held in major American museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum, NY and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, and also the Tate Gallery, London, UK.

SELECT RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2024
'Alex Katz: Theater and Dance', The Baker Museum, Naples, FL (10/12/2024 - 2/2/2025)
'Alex Katz: Collaborations with Poets', The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH (9/15 - 11/15)
'Alex Katz: 60 Years of Printmaking', Thaddaeus Ropac Pantin, Paris, France (5/25 - 7/23)
'Alex Katz: Claire, Grass and Water', Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy (4/17 - 9/29)

2023
'Alex Katz', Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY
'Alex Katz', Sant'Andrea de Scaphis, Rome, Italy
'Alex Katz: Autumn', GRAY, Chicago, IL
'Alex Katz', Gladstone Gallery, Seoul, Korea
'Alex Katz: Dance and Theatre Collaborations', Colby College Museum of Art, Bangor, ME
'Alex Katz: Collaborations with Poets', Poetry Foundation, Chicago, IL
'Alex Katz: Wedding Dress', Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME (6/30/2023 - 6/2/2024)
'Alex Katz: Purple Splits', Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
'Maine in America 2023: A Celebration of the Alex Katz Foundation', Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
'Alex Katz: Recent Prints', Albertina, Vienna, Austria
'Alex Katz', Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands

2022
'Alex Katz: Gathering', Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
'Alex Katz', Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
'Alex Katz: 95th Birthday', Albertina, Vienna, Austria
'Alex Katz', Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART), Rovereto, TN, Italy
'Alex Katz', Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK
'Alex Katz: Ada', Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2021
'Alex Katz', Galeria Monica de Cardenas Zuoz, St. Moritz, Switzerland
'Alex Katz: Flowers', Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Seoul, Korea
'Alex Katz: Mondes flottants / Floating Worlds', Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Pantin, Paris, France
'Alex Katz: Collaborations with Poets', Albertina, Vienna, Austria
'Alex Katz: New Paintings', Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY
'Alex Katz', Voorlinden Museum, Wassenaar, The Netherlands
'Alex Katz', Gladstone Gallery, Beijing, China

2020
'Alex Katz: Three Trees', Gladstone Gallery, Sant'Andrea de Scaphis, Rome, Italy
'Alex Katz', Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
'Alex Katz', Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK

2019
'Focus On: Alex Katz', Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), Dallas TX
'Alex Katz/Moby Dick', Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
'Alex Katz: Water Lilies - Homage to Monet series, 2009-2010', Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France
'Alex Katz', Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, NY
'Alex Katz', Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, South Korea
'Alex Katz: Bigger is Better (Prints)', Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany

2018
'Alex Katz', Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany

2017
'Alex Katz: Endless Summer', Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
'Alex Katz', Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK

2016
'Alex Katz: Black and White', American University Museum, Washington D.C.
'Alex Katz: Ladies and Landscapes', Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY
'Alex Katz: Quick Light', Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
'Alex Katz: Present Tense: Sixty Years of Master Drawings', Richard Gray Gallery, New York, NY
'Alex Katz', Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, NY
'Alex Katz: Present Tense: Sixty Years of Master Drawings', Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL

2015
'Alex Katz: This is Now', Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain
'Alex Katz at the Met', Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
'Alex Katz: This is Now', High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

2012
'Alex Katz', Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, NY
'Alex Katz: Give Me Tomorrow', Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK
'Alex Katz', Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg/Vienna, Austria
'Alex Katz', Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK
'Alex Katz: Maine/New York', Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
'Alex Katz: Paintings and Works on Paper', Galerie Klüser, Munich, Germany
'Alex Katz: Give Me Tomorrow', Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK
'Alex Katz: 85 Years Pure Beauty', Galerie Fluegel-Roncak, Nuremberg, Germany
'Alex Katz: Prints', Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
'Alex Katz: 35 Years of Portraits', Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA

2011
'Alex Katz: Naked Beauty', Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover, Germany 
'Alex Katz: Figure / Ground', Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York, NY
'Alex Katz', Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, NY
'Alex Katz: Face the Music', Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
'Alex Katz: Recent Paintings and Selected Prints', James Cohen Gallery, Shanghai, China

2010
'Alex Katz: Once in a Lifetime' Galería Javier López - Mário Sequeira, Madrid, Spain
'Alex Katz: Prints, Paintings, Cutouts', Kunsthalle Würth, Schwäbisch Hall, Germany
'Alex Katz: New Work', Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
'Alex Katz', Mário Sequeira Gallery, Brago, Portugal
'Alex Katz: Prints', Albertina, Vienna, Austria
'Alex Katz: Portraits', National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
'Alex Katz', Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK
'Alex Katz: Seeing, Drawing, Making', Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

2009
'Alex Katz: An American Way of Seeing', Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve, Germany
'Alex Katz: Drawings', Peter Blum Soho, New York, NY
'Alex Katz: Selected Works', Galerie Bernd Klüser, Munich, Germany
'Alex Katz: Fifteen Minutes', PaceWildenstein, New York, NY
'Alex Katz: Fashion and Studies', Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France

2008
'Alex Katz', Monica De Cardenas Galleria, Milan, Italy
'Alex Katz: Marine', Galerie Jablonka, Berlin, Germany
'Alex Katz: Drawing on Paper II', Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France

2007
'Alex Katz: One Flight Up', Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK
'Alex Katz: Drawings on Paper I', Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
'Alex Katz: Paintings, Studies, Cartoons', Galeri Toni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain
'Alex Katz', Pace Prints, New York, NY
'Alex Katz: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art', New York State Museum, Albany, NY
'Alex Katz: Cut-outs', Galería Javier López, Madrid, Spain
'Alex Katz: New York', Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, Ireland
'Alex Katz: Smile', Peter Blum Chelsea, New York, NY

2006
'Alex Katz', Rosenbaum Contemporary, Boca Raton, FL
'Alex Katz: Paints Ada', Jewish Museum, New York, NY
'Essential Painting' (group exhibition), National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
'Alex Katz in Maine', Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
'Alex Katz: Works from the Permanent Collection', Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
'Alex Katz: The Sixties', PaceWildenstein, New York, NY
'Alex Katz', Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
'Alex Katz: New Paintings', Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL

2005
'Alex Katz', Monica De Cardenas Galleria, Milan, Italy
'Alex Katz: Man in White Shirt', Galería Javier López, Madrid, Spain
'Alex Katz: First Sight', Peter Blum, New York, NY
'Alex Katz', Farsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
'Alex Katz: Collages', Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, ME
'Alex Katz', CAC Málaga, Spain
'Alex Katz', University of South of Florida, Tampa, FL

2004
'Alex Katz: Cartoons and Paintings', Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria

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