Coming of age as an artist in the 1950s, Alex Katz set out to reinvent representational painting in the wake of Abstract Expressionism. At first, Katz struggled to find an audience, destroying hundreds of canvases. This exhibition surveys the artwork that survived from this momentous decade, one in which he first painted outdoors, innovated with collages and met Ada del Moro, his wife and muse. The author's contextualise Katz's painting, consider how he and his peers looked at one another, mined 19th-century portraiture, and borrowed from television, advertising and cinema. The result is a fascinating study of a young artist laying the groundwork for an astonishingly successful career. Fans of Katz will be astonished by the radicalism of his early work, and those being introduced to the artist will be struck by its freshness and relevance. Published in association with the Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME. AUTHOR: Diana Tuite is the Katz Curator at the Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME. 150 colour illustrations

Essay by David Cohen. Foreword by Sharon Corwin.

Essay by Sanford Schwartz.

Alex Katz (born 1927) is best known as a painter--specifically, as a painter of his family and his distinguished circle of friends, including poets, writers and artists. In the early 1950s, he began experimenting with printmaking, but it was not until the mid 1960s that he intensified his interest and production in the medium. Pushing at the limits of various printing techniques, Katz tested out pictorial ideas first conceived for his paintings, retaining planes of matte color but further simplifying his forms and dramatically cropping his images. These reduced compositions were wonderfully compatible with the graphic clarity of printmaking, and by effectively translating his paintings into prints, the artist achieved what he called the "final synthesis of painting." This publication provides insight into an often-neglected yet vital aspect of Katz's work, from the early 1950s to the present day.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition, Alex Katz, This Is Now, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, June 21-September 6, 2015, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, October 16, 2015-January 31, 2016.

De catalogus is gepubliceerd ter gelegenheid van de tentoonstelling ALEX KATZ - 10 juni tot en met 1 oktober 2023