Bio
Alex Katz is renowned for his figurative paintings, which examine the nature of representing the three-dimensional world on canvas in simplified portraits and landscapes. Katz was born in Brooklyn; he attended the Cooper Union School of Art in New York, later studying art at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine. Amidst the height of Abstract Expressionism in the United States, Katz painted representational works, but in the 1950s his quick, expressive brushstrokes represent the influence of artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning on his work. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, his adherence to simplified forms and to careful studies of light, flatness, and color are particularly evident in his work. His allegiance to figuration and his embrace of the two-dimensional surface prefigured these features in Pop Art in the 1960s.
Katz also worked with collage, printmaking, and set design, increasingly concentrating on these mediums and developing freestanding sculptural collages through the 1970s. He later painted large-scale landscapes, developing “environments” in his works intended to envelop and immerse the viewer, and continues working with natural themes in his works today. Katz has held solo exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, at The Jewish Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga in Spain, among other venues, and has received several honors for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He currently lives and works in New York and Maine.
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Alex Katz - Coca Cola Girl, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO (details)
2019 Alex Katz: Prints, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany
2018 Alex Katz: Grass and Trees, Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL
2018 Alex Katz: Models and Dancers, Lotte Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2018 Brand-New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950s, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, NY
2018 Alex Katz: Coca-Cola Girls, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, England
2018 Alex Katz: Splits, Galeria Javier Lopez & Frances Fer, Madrid, Spain
2018 ARTIST ROOMS: Alex Katz, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, England, U.K.
2018 Alex Katz, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany
2017 Alex Katz: Black and White, Tampa Museum of Art
2017 Alex Katz: Cartoons, Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid
2017 Alex Katz: Subway Drawings, Timothy Taylor 16x34, New York, NY
2017 Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950s, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
2017 Alex Katz, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
2017 Alex Katz, Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York, NY
2017 Alex Katz Cut Outs: 1950s - 1980s, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, 291 Grand St, New York, NY
2017 Alex Katz: Small Painting, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
2017 Alex Katz: Three Paintings, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Alex Katz: Dancers and Models, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
2016 Present Tense: Sixty Years of Master Drawings, Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL
2016 Present Tense: Sixty Years of Master Drawings, Richard Gray Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Alex Katz, Gavin Brown's enterprise
2016 Alex Katz: Quick Light, Serpentine Gallery, London
2016 Alex Katz: Small Paintings, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
2016 Alex Katz: New Landscapes, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
2016 Alex Katz: Small Paintings and Drawings, 1990 - 2016, Galleria Monica de Cardenas, Milan
2016 Alex Katz: Black and White, American University Museum, Washington D.C.
2015 Alex Katz: Black Paintings, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
2015 Alex Katz, Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York, NY
2015 Alex Katz: This is Now, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
2015 Brand-New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950s, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
2015 Alex Katz at the Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2015 Alex Katz: This is Now, Guggenheim Bilbao
2015 Alex Katz: Portraits, Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid
2014 Alex Katz, Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York, NY
2014 45 Years of Portraits: 1969-2014, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
2014 Alex Katz: 70s / 80s / 90s, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
2014 Alex Katz, Luciana Brito Galeria, São Paulo
2014 Alex Katz, 356 S. Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA
2014 Alex Katz: Red Hat, Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid
2014 Alex Katz: Drawings, Cartoons, Paintings, Albertina, Vienna
2013 Katz x Katz, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2013 Alex Katz: Summer in Maine, Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid
2013 Alex Katz: Landscapes, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich
2013 Alex Katz: New York/Maine, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg
2013 Alex Katz / Félix Vallotton, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
2013 Alex Katz: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor
2013 Alex Katz: Beneath the Surface, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
2013 Alex Katz: Portraits & Late Summer Flowers, Meyerovich Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 Alex Katz: Small Paintings 1987-2013, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY
2013 Alex Katz: Virtual Reality, Richard Gray, Chicago, IL
2013 Alex Katz: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
2012 Alex Katz: Casa Nadi, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (MAC) de la Foundation Gas Natural Fenosa, Avda. Arteixo, 171, 15008 A Coruña SPAIN
2012 Alex Katz Prints, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA
2012 Alex Katz: Give Me Tomorrow, Tate, St. Ives
2012 Alex Katz: Seductive Elegance (New Portraits), Meyerovich Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Alex Katz: Maine/New York, Colby College Museum of Art, ME
2012 Alex Katz, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
2012 Alex Katz, Essl Museum, Vienna
2012 Alex Katz, Turner Contemporary, Margate
2012 Alex Katz, Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York, NY
2011 Alex Katz, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany
2011 Alex Katz, James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai, China
2011 Alex Katz, Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York, NY
2011 Alex Katz: Figure/Ground, Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York, NY
2011 Alex Katz: Face the Music, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
2011 Alex Katz: Naked Beauty, Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover
2010 Alex Katz, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
2010 Alex Katz Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London
2010 Alex Katz Prints, Albertina, Vienna, Austria
2010 Alex Katz: New Work, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
2010 Alex Katz: Prints, Paintings, Cutouts, Kunsthalle Würth, Schwäbisch Hall, Germany
2010 Alex Katz: Once in a Lifetime, Galería Javier López–Mário Sequeira, Madrid
2010 Alex Katz, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2009 Alex Katz: Seeing, Drawing, Making, The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, FL
2009 Alex Katz: Seeing, Drawing, Making, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, NY
2009 Alex Katz: Reflections, Museo delle Arti di Catanzaro (MARCA), Calabria, Italy
2009 Alex Katz, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
2009 Alex Katz: An American Way of Seeing, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland
2009 Alex Katz: An American Way of Seeing, Musée Grenoble, Grenoble, France
2009 Alex Katz: An American Way of Seeing, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve, Germany
2009 Alex Katz: Fifteen Minutes, PaceWildenstein, New York, NY
2008 Alex Katz, Galerie Jablonka , Berlin
2008 Alex Katz: Subject To Reversal, Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL
2008 Alex Katz, Galleria Monica de Cardenas, Milan
2007 Alex Katz: New York, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2007 Alex Katz: Cutouts, Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid
2007 Paintings Studies Cartoons, Galeria Toni Tápies , Barcelona, Spain
2007 Alex Katz: Drawings, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
2007 One Flight Up, Timothy Taylor Gallery , London, United Kingdom
2007 Alex Katz Paintings, Studies, Cartoons, Galeria Toni Tapies - Consell de Cent 282, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
2006 Alex Katz, Texas Gallery , Houston, TX
2006 Alex Katz: Piccoli Formati, Galleria in Arco, Piazza Vittorio Veneto 1-3, 10124 Torino, Italy
2006 Alex Katz: The Sixties, PaceWildenstein Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Alex Katz New Faces 2006, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
2006 Alex Katz in Maine, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2006 Alex Katz in European Collections, Langen Foundation, Neuss, Germany
2006 Alex Katz: Woodcuts and Linocuts, Colby College Museum of Art , Waterville, ME
2006 Alex Katz Paints Ada, 1957-2005, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
2005 Alex Katz' Collages, Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, ME
2005 Alex Katz, The University of South Florida at Tampa, FL
2005 Alex Katz: Recent Paintings, CAC Malaga, Malaga, Spain
2005 Alex Katz in Maine, Farnsworth Art Museum Museum, Rockland, ME
2005 Neue Editionen, Sabine Maximilian Verlag , Munich, Germany
2005 Alex Katz, Alex Katz, "First Sight": Working Drawings from 1965-2002, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY
2005 Alex Katz: Man in White Shirt, Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid, Spain
2005 Alex Katz, Monica De Cardenas, Milano
2004 Alex Katz, Galerie Jablonka, Koln, Germany
2004 Alex Katz, Stella Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2004 Alex Katz, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, England
2004 Alex Katz: Twelve Paintings, PaceWildenstein New York
2004 Alex Katz Prints 1966-2003, Galerie Christine Koenig , Vienna, Austria
2004 Alex Katz: Cartoons and Paintings, Albertina Museum , Vienna, Austria
2003 Alex Katz, Galleria D'Arte Contemporanea Emilio Mazzoli , Modena, Italy
2003 Alex Katz: Cutouts, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
2003 Alex Katz: New Paintings and Drawings, Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL
2003 Alex Katz, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
2003 Alex Katz: Portraits, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy
2003 Alex Katz: Cutouts, Museum Moderner Kunst Kirnten, Klagenfurt, Austria
2003 Alex Katz: Flowers and Landscapes, PaceWildenstein , New York, New York
2003 Alex Katz: Flowers and Landscapes, PaceWildenstein, New York, New York
2003 Alex Katz: Small Portraits and Large Landscapes, Galleria Monica de Cardenas, Milano, Italy
2002 Alex Katz: Small Paintings, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
2002 Alex Katz: Small Paintings, Whitney Museum of American Art , New York, NY
2002 Alex Katz: Small Paintings, Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York, NY
2002 Alex Katz: Small Paintings, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
2002 Alex Katz: Small Paintings, Oklahoma City Museum, Oklahoma City, OK
2002 Alex Katz: Small Paintings, The Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX
2002 Beach Scenes and Landscapes, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
2002 Alex Katz, Galeria Mário Sequeira, Braga, Portugal
2002 Alex Katz: In Your Face, Kunst-Und Ausstellungshalle Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany
2002 Alex Katz - Small Paintings, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2002 Alex Katz, Tacoma Art Museum , Tacoma, WA
2001 Alex Katz, Galleria Emilio Mazzoli, Modena, Italy
2001 Alex Katz, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin, Germany
2001 Alex Katz, Galeria Monica de Cardenas, Venice, Italy
2001 Alex Katz: The Complete Woodcuts, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Paintings of the 60's, Jablonka Galerie, Cologne, Germany
2000 Alex Katz, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2000 Regarding Alex Katz, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
2000 Alex Katz Paintings of the 1980s, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria