Alex Katz

Alex Katz is a painter known for his contemporary representational paintings and depictions of modern life. Katz was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1927 to Russian emigre parents who encouraged his interests in art from a young age. After graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School, Katz entered The Cooper Union Art School in Manhattan in 1946,  where he studied painting and decided to devote his life to painting. Although Katz came of age as an artist at the height of Abstract Expressionism, he retained his own distinct vision, taking inspiration from Henri Matisse’s sense of color and composition. After graduation, Katz held his first one-person show at the Roko Gallery in 1954, and began working on figures and portraiture. In the 1960s, influenced by film, television, and advertising, Katz began working on large scale paintings and began producing prints in lithography, etching, silkscreen, woodcut and linoleum cut. Katz’s focus shifted again in the 80s and 90s, when he began painting “environmental” pieces - large landscapes, themes of nature and light, and blossoming flowers. Since the 2010s, Katz has focused on individual portraiture and collaged compositions. 

Today, Katz’s work can be found in over 100 public collections worldwide, including The Art Institute of Chicago; The Brooklyn Museum; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Available Works