2023
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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"Yellow Flags on White", Flowers, Yellow, White
By Alex Katz
Located in Köln, DE
We are proud to present a brand new edition by Alex Katz. "Yellow Flags on White" is one of the latest works that has been published. It is an homage to his landscape and flower artworks...
Pigment
"Yellow Flags on Brown", Flowers, Still life, Yellow, Brown
By Alex Katz
Located in Köln, DE
We are proud to present a brand new edition by Alex Katz. "Yellow Flags on Brown" is one of the latest works that has been published. It is an homage to his landscape and flower artworks...
Pigment
"Purple Irises on White", Iris, Purple, White, Flowers, Landscape
By Alex Katz
Located in Köln, DE
We are proud to present a brand new edition by Alex Katz. "Purple Irises in White" is one of the latest works that have been published. It is an homage to his landscape and flower artworks...
Pigment
Porcelain Beauty - enamel, aluminum, black and white
By Alex Katz
Located in Köln, DE
The set "Porcelain Beauty" consists of 6 porcelain enamel artworks on aluminum plate. Alex Katz was life-long influenced by advertising e.g. the Ame...
Enamel
"Purple Irises on Red", Iris, Purple, Red, Flowers, Landscape
By Alex Katz
Located in Köln, DE
We are proud to present a brand new edition by Alex Katz. "Purple Irises on Red" is one of the latest works that have been published. Edition of 100, signed, numbered and dated.
Pigment
Laura 5 - gray, grey, portrait, profile, shades
By Alex Katz
Located in Köln, DE
"Laura 5" is a very special work by Alex Katz. Despite from that he became famous for his bright colors, this print is made in various shades of gray. So this classical Katz portrait...
Digital Pigment
Freesia
By Alex Katz
Located in New York, NY
Created as an original seven-color woodcut on Somerset White paper in 2023, Alex Katz's Freesia measures 47 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. (120.7 x 90.2 cm), unframed. The artwork is hand-signed a...
Woodcut
Freesia
By Alex Katz
Located in Fairfield, CT
7-color woodcut on Somerset white 500 gsm
Archival Paper, Woodcut
Yellow Tulips - Contemporary, 21st Century, Silkscreen, Limited Edition, Katz
By Alex Katz
Located in Zug, CH
Alex Katz, Yellow Tulips Contemporary, 21st Century, Silkscreen, Limited Edition Edition of 50 + 5 PP + 15 AP 122,5 x 195,7 cm (48.2 x 77 in.) Signed and numbered on the front In mint condition, as acquired from the publisher (Lococo) PLEASE NOTE: Edition numbers could vary from the one shown in the images. All edition available come from the edition /50 The pictures are only for illustrative reasons, the work is offered unframed. “Yellow Tulips” is part of the famous flower painting series by Alex Katz. The aesthetics of flowers such as flags, tulips, and roses has been continuously explored by the artist throughout his career. "I generally start with oil sketches, because I can paint more quickly than I can draw. In this way I try to capture the sensation of what I’m doing, getting into the unconscious and creating the images, and then figuring out what I did." — Alex Katz Katz has been painting flowers since the 1960s, often during his summer residencies in Maine. The cropped, flattened composition displays a debt to Japanese woodblock art printing. The American artist is well-known for his large paintings, whose bold simplicity and unmodulated colours are now seen as precursors of Pop Art. "Yellow Tulips" is another of Katz's wonderfully bright exploration of nature and the landscape. He represents the volumes and colors created by the natural light, this artwork breathes nature, the radiant yellow delights the vision against the limitless black background. The painting “Tulips 4” which this edition is based on belongs to the Collection of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. ALEX KATZ Alex Katz (American, born 1927) is the outstanding protagonist of figurative painting and one of our era's most acclaimed artists. In the late 1950s, the artist began to develop his mature style, characterized by elegance, simplicity, and stylized abstraction, which typifies his entire production. Alex Katz’s paintings...
Screen
Yellow Tulips Screen Print, 15-Color on Museum Board, 2014, Unframed
By Alex Katz
Located in New York, NY
'Yellow Tulips', 2014 Alex Katz 15-color silkscreen on 4-ply museum board 48.2 x 77 in. / 122 x 196 cm. The specific information regarding edition will be provided at the time of sa...
Screen
Yellow Flags on White
By Alex Katz
Located in New York, NY
Alex Katz Yellow Flags on White 2023 Archival pigment ink print, on Innova Etching Cotton Rag 315 gsm 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm) unframed Signed and numbered edition of 100 Alex Ka...
Archival Pigment
Yellow flags on white
By Alex Katz
Located in Fairfield, CT
Edition of 150.
Rag Paper, Etching, Archival Pigment
