Alex Katz

According to Robert Storr of the Museum of Modern Art, there is one word to describe the work of Alex Katz: “cool.”

Since his first exhibition in 1953, Alex Katz and his clean candid portrayal of life-size figures has earned him a place in the history of American art. He approaches his subjects with a simplicity that gives each subject a fresh graphic persona. Katz uses scale, space, and color to create masterful compositions that are unique in style to him alone.

His work is part of numerous public and private collections such as The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), The Tate Gallery (London), Nationalgalerie (Berlin), and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington DC).

In Kate, Alex Katz utilizes the cyanotype technique, a printmaking process first invented in 1841 and commonly used for architectural blueprint drawings. Outlined in blue, the portrait is a bleed, where the print image is extended to the edges of the paper. Kate is a portrait of the American actress Kate Valk known for her title role Brutus Jones in the Wooster Group’s acclaimed production “The Emperor Jones” by Eugene O. Neill.

Images courtesy of Graphicstudio/USF