Alex Katz

About

The American painter Alex Katz began working in the 1950s, focusing on figurative subjects which set him apart from the avant-garde mainstream but brought him public recognition in the 1980s when many young artists began to work in related ways. Although best-known for large-scale portraits, painted in his distinctive, stylised manner, Katz has also consistently made small paintings, many of them conceived initially as studies, which can be considered as a distinct body of work.

Katz has twenty such small paintings in the ARTIST ROOMS collection, which span his career. All of the portraits in the collection depict the artists’ friends or family, including his son Vincent, a habitual model for Katz since his birth in 1960, and many of the landscapes derive from the Maine coast, where Katz has spent summers since the beginning of his career.