Alex Katz

Alex Katz

Katz's paintings are divided into the genres of portraiture and landscape. His paintings are defined by their flatness of color and form, and their cool emotional detachment

In the early 1960s, influenced by films, television, and billboard advertising, Katz began painting large-scale paintings, often with dramatically cropped faces. Ada Katz, whom he married in 1958, has been the subject of over 1,000 portraits throughout his career.

To make one of his large works, Katz paints a small oil sketch of a subject on a masonite board; the sitting might take an hour and a half. He then makes a small, detailed drawing in pencil or charcoal, with the subject returning, perhaps, for the artist to make corrections. Katz next blows up the drawing into a "cartoon", sometimes using an overhead projector, and transfers it to an enormous canvas. Katz pre-mixes all his colors and gets his brushes ready. Then he dives in and paints the canvas—12 feet wide by 7 feet high or even larger—in a session of six or seven hours.

Alex Katz

Ada and Louise

1987

oil on canvas

56 x 96 inches

Alex Katz

Islesboro Ferry Slip

1975

oil on linen

78 x 84 inches

Alex Katz

Night House 1

2013

oil on linen

10 ½ by 8 feet

The Red Smile

1963

oil on canvas

6.5 x 9.5 feet

Alex Katz

Yellow Flags 4

2020

Photo etching, photo-gravure and aquatint in five colors

46 x 31 inches

Alex Katz

Vivien in white coat

Screen print

21 × 15 inches

2021

Alex Katz

Ada

2011

Japanese woodblock in thirty-one colors

21 3/4 x 29 3/4 inches

Alex Katz

4 pm

2014

Oil on linen

144 × 108 in

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Alex Katz

3 pm

1988

Woodcut

36 x 78 inches

Alex Katz

Oak

1996

Linoleum Cut

15 x 44 inches

Alex Katz,

Blue Umbrella 2 2020 Archival pigment inks

30 x 45.5 inches

Alex Katz,

Unfamiliar Image 2001 Screenprint in five colors

30 x 44 1/8 inches

Alex Katz

Blue Hat

2003

Aquatint in eleven colors

33 3/8 x 66 7/8 in

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Alex Katz

Reflection 2

Archival pigment inks

47 x 39.5 inches

2021

Alex Katz

Sunrise 1

2022

Archival pigment inks 54 x 40.5 inches

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What does Alex Katz do before he makes his final artworks?

An Alex Katz inspired artwork

• Think about different people who could act as a subject for a portrait. Who do you feel a connection to?

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• What emotion of your subject do you want to communicate? What do you want the viewer to feel?

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• Take or get a photograph of your subject to use as a reference. Begin with drawing a simple contour line of the portrait.

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• What colors do you want to use, what would be best to communicate your idea?