Katz, Alex

Alex Katz was one of the funadamental artists associated with the Pop Art movement. He was born in Brookly, NY in 1927 and studied at the Cooper Union, NY from 1949-50. He was academically trained in Classical painting from life which shaped his early work, eventually pursuing more experimental approaches. It wasn’t until he was in his 50s that he grew fiercely prolific. He would become known for his huge sized paintings of elegant simplicity and striking color, popularizing his art as an early precursor to Pop Art.

Katz was a sculptor and a painter of primarily portraiture and landscape, influencing both US and international artists and galleries. His favorite subjecs were of views from his own SoHo neighborhood as well as nature scenes from Maine where he spent Summer holidays. Katz has painted over 250 portraits of his wife, Ada Katz and often other family members and people from his closer, famous social circles.

He had an exhibition at the Whitney Museum in 1974 and in 1977 was commissioned for a work in billboard format above Times Square; it consisted of 23 portaits of Womens’ heads and became iconographic. Katz’ art has had more than 200 solo exhibitions and 500 group exhibits throughout the world and numerous international Museum retrospectives. Further, his work is kept in collections of over 100 institutions including the Smithshonian, MOMA, the National Galleries of Berlin and Scotland and the Tate Gallery, London.