Alex Katz

Alex Katz is an American painter known for his large-scale, flat, and colorful portraits and landscapes. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1927, Katz studied at the Cooper Union School of Art and later at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He emerged as a prominent figure in the art world during the 1950s and 1960s, a time when Abstract Expressionism was the dominant movement. However, Katz's work was characterized by a more figurative and representational approach, often depicting friends, family, and scenes from everyday life with a sense of cool detachment and simplicity.

Katz's style is often associated with Pop Art due to his use of bold colors and simplified forms, but his work also shows influences from American Scene painting and billboard advertising. His large-scale paintings are created through a process of first making small studies and then transferring the image onto a larger canvas through a grid system. This method allows for a precise and graphic quality in his work, as seen in his iconic paintings such as The Black Dress and The Red Band.

Throughout his career, Katz has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim Museum. His work is held in the collections of major institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Tate Gallery. Katz continues to paint and exhibit his work, remaining an influential figure in contemporary art.