Artist

Alex Katz

born New York City 1927
Media - portrait_image_113214.jpg - 90147
Courtesy Alex Katz Papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Born
New York, New York, United States
Biography

Alex Katz's paintings and sculptures monumentalize common moments of everyday life. Katz was influenced by the golden age of the billboard business when hand-painted advertisements became an art form as well as a distraction on America's highways. He paints in a simple, direct style using large areas of unmodulated colors to attract our attention. Roadside signs with moving parts, in which the figures extended beyond the billboard, also motivated Katz to produce canvas cutouts pasted onto wooden boards, fashioning life-size figures that are like huge paper dolls. (Marshall, Alex Katz, 1986)

Works by this artist (24 items)

View all artworks
Alex Katz, Susan, 1976, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2001.16
Susan
Artist
Date1976
screenprint on paper
Not on view
Image Not Available
Washington Crossing the Delaware: The Dream of George…
Artist
Date1961
plywood assembled and painted in oil
Not on view
Alex Katz, Washington Crossing the Delaware: Waves, 1961, assembled, nailed, bolted, and screwed plywood painted in oil, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Anderson, Martha Jackson Memorial Collection, 1979.56.2B
Washington Crossing the Delaware: Waves
Artist
Date1961
assembled, nailed, bolted, and screwed plywood painted in oil
Not on view
Alex Katz, West Window, 1979, oil on board, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Edith S. and Arthur J. Levin, 2005.5.44
West Window
Artist
Date1979
oil on board
Not on view

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      An interview with the artist Alex Katz. Alex Katz's paintings and sculptures monumentalize common moments of everyday life. Katz was influenced by the golden age of the billboard business. Roadside signs with moving parts, in which the figures extended beyond the billboard, also motivated Katz to produce canvas cutouts pasted onto wooden boards, fashioning life-size figures that are like huge paper dolls. (Marshall, Alex Katz, 1986)

      Related Books

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      Crosscurrents: Modern Art from the Sam Rose and Julie Walters Collection
      In eighty-eight striking paintings and sculptures, Crosscurrents captures modernism as it moved from early abstractions by O’Keeffe, to Picasso and Pollock in midcentury, to pop riffs on contemporary culture by Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, and Tom Wesselmann—all illustrating the complexity and energy of a distinctly American modernism.