Katz, Alex

New York artist Alex Katz is one of the most famous painters in the USA. Mostly he is assigned to modern realism and pop art. Except for a few motifs from landscape and architecture, his works are mainly in the field of portrait painting. Already during his Einsteinium at the Cooper Union Art School in New York and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture he devoted himself mainly to painting.
 

In his paintings, figures, portraits and landscapes appear like snapshots without a concrete statement. His motifs are taken from striking media such as the advertising industry, magazines and film stills. Within his medium, he limits himself to clear, simple compositions, as well as to a color scheme that places surface in the foreground. In large formats he created representational painting around 1960. His reduced and striking style, however, makes his works look like advertising posters. Without color gradations, he creates flat faces that look like masks due to their smooth surface. They appear neutral and reveal nothing about their emotional state. This technique reflects his attitude towards painting. Style seems to be more important to him than narrative, emotional elements. Thus he was considered a pioneer of Pop Art and figurative realism.
 

It was not until late that his paintings found their way into well-known galleries and institutions. These include the Hamburg Deichtorhallen, the Bonn Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Withney Museum of American Art.