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Care for a Swim?

On this day in 1926, Gertrude Ederle, a nineteen-year-old New Yorker, became the first woman to swim the English Channel. She broke the previous record by nearly two hours.

Alex Katz's print The Swimmer juxtaposes the classical grace of a figure in the water with the splutters of an athlete pushing herself to the limit.

Katz, who had experimented with printmaking during his early career but then concentrated on painting and collage, returned to the medium in 1965. "Prints are supposed to be, with my work, the final synthesis of a painting," he said.

The Swimmer is based on a large oil painting from 1973; Katz explored the image again as a screenprint a few years later. These reinterpretations allowed him to share his work with a wider audience.

Source: News release, Brooklyn Museum, n.d.

Pictured: Alex Katz, born 1927, The Swimmer, 1974, aquatint and drypoint on paper, 28 1/8 x 36 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.