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Cover: Olivia 1, Edition 32/50, 2025 silkscreen on Saunders 425 gsm paper, 59 x 40 inches
KATZ
Minimalist / Maximalist
ALEX KATZ: Portraits and LandscapesThrough the Seasons positions Katz not merely as a portraitist or landscape artist, but as a chronicler of human and natural forms, distilled into their most essential components. The bold lines, blocks of unmodulated color, and flattened planes of works such as Large Black Hat (Ada) and Ariel (B&W) speak to Katz's engagement with minimalism while simultaneously celebrating the maximalist spectacle of life’s fleeting moments in female form.
Pioneering Figure in Contemporary Art
Curated by Sponder Gallery, the exhibit ion at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens celebrates Alex Katz, a pioneering figure in the landscape of 20th and 21st-century contemporary art Through a meticulously selected collection of silkscreens, pigment prints, linocuts, and original works, this exhibition underscores Katz’s unique ability to collapse time and space into a vibrant dialogue of flatness, form, and color Emerging as an antithesis to the turbulent, gestural dynamism of Abstract Expressionism,
Katz championed a visual language rooted in simplicity, narrative clarity, and compositional balance His works embrace a dichotomy of modernity and intimacy, drawing parallels with cinematic storytelling and the consumerist aesthetics of advertising However, Katz's work transcends the material culture of Pop Art by infusing a personal resonance, his recurrent muse Ada Katz anchors his portraits in the universal themes of identity, presence, and relationality
By reducing his subjects to their most essential visual components, Alex Katz engages in a reductive process that foregrounds the raw immediacy of his forms while simultaneously revealing the calculated precision underpinning his painterly approach When examined through the framework of modernist art theory, what initially appears as reductive simplicity unfolds as a deliberate exercise in compositional rigor Katz’s flat, illustrative aesthetic; characterized by unmodulated planes, hard-edged contours, and minimal tonal variation, adopts a methodical editing process that eschews extraneous detail
This subtractive methodology not only refines his visual vocabulary but also amplifies the conceptual clarity of his work, directing attention to the core formal and narrative elements that define his distinctive artistic practice
ALEX KATZ: Portraits and LandscapesThrough the Seasons is an enlightening and captivating showcase of the artist’s boldly minimalist works that demonstrate his masterful combination of composition, color, and form
Subjective Methodology that refines a visual vocabulary
Banal meets the exceptional
The Autumn and Spring series represent Katz’s profound engagement with the cyclical nature of time The abstracted compositions of falling leaves or budding branches embody a conceptual rather than mimetic approach to nature. By simplifying forms into rhythmic patterns and vibrant palettes, Katz invites viewers to experience seasonal transitions as both a visual and emotional journey
Katz's floral works, as seen in an earlier limited edition, such as Purple Irises on Red and Yellow Flags on White, juxtapose nature's fleeting beauty with the permanence of printmaking These works evoke the crispness of archival pigment prints, in a way, conceptually bridge the analog and the digital Alongside these delicate florals, the monumental presence of Ada in Big Smile or Coca Cola Girls underscores Katz’s exploration of th t l i th di th b l t th ti l
Simplicity archives complexity, and flatness invites depth.
Katz’s art exists within a cultural continuum, drawing from his education at the Cooper Union and his plein air experiences at Skowhegan. His work inhabits significant collections such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Tate, a testament to his global resonance Katz’s deliberate evasion of art historical categorizations reveals a unique academic challenge: his oeuvre necessitates a discourse that integrates minimalism, realism, and Pop sensibilities
This exhibition reveals Katz’s capacity to transform the mundane into the sublime through his methodical abstraction of form and his incisive understanding of human expression Katz does not simply depict; he monumental-izes the everyday His works resonate as visual essays, each composition a chapter in the broader narrative of modern and contemporary art as he approaches 100 years old
Through this exhibition, from Sponder Gallery, ALEX KATZ: Portraits and LandscapesT
ALEX KATZ
Edition 8/60, 2019 20-color silkscreen on Saunders
Waterford High White HP 425
gsm fine art paper, 40 x 56 in Coca Cola Girls #5
Edition 38/60, 2019 14-color
silkscreen on Saunders
Waterford High White HP 425
gsm fine art paper, 40 x 55 in Coca Cola Girls #8
ALEX KATZ
Edition 7/60, 2024 Archival pigment on innova Etching cotton rag 315 gsm paper, 52 x 42 in Summer
Spring 1
Edition 12/40, 2024 Silkscreen in colors on Saunders 425 gsm paper, 72 x 35.5 in.
ALEX KATZ
Spring 2
Edition 12/40, 2024 Silkscreen in colors on Saunders 425 gsm paper, 72 x 35.5 in.
Spring 3
Edition 12/40, 2024 Silkscreen in colors on Saunders 425 gsm paper, 72 x 35.5 in.
ALEX KATZ
Edition 24/70, 2021
Lithograph, woodcut and silkscreen on paper, 46 x 34 1/2 in Sunrise
Autumn 6
Edition of 75, 2023 Silkscreen in colors on Saunders 425 gsm paper, 72 x 48 in.
ALEX KATZ
Autumn 5
Edition of 75, 2023 Silkscreen in colors on Saunders 425 gsm paper, 54 x 71 in.
1
Edition 32/50, 2025 silkscreen on Saunders 425 gsm paper, 59 x 40 inches
Olivia
ALEX KATZ
Edition 140/150, 2022 Archival pigment print on 315 gsm paper, 36 x 36 in.
Straw Hat 1
Edition HC 1/5, 2012 Silkscreen on Brown Kraft 70 lb paper, 62 x 58 in.
Large Black Hat (Ada) Kraft
ALEX KATZ
Edition 4/25, 2012 Silkscreen on Saunders Waterford hot press 410 gsm paper, 62 x 58 in Large Black Hat (Ada)
24/100, 2021
Edition
Archival pigment ink on Innova Etching Cotton Rag 315 gsm fine art paper, 35 x 70 in
Big Smile
KATZ
Edition 4/6, 2022 Porcelain enamel on cut steel mounted on polished stainless steel base, 74 1/2 x 56 x 14 1/2 in
Vivian in White Coat
Edition 8/15, 2022 Marine plywood figure mounted to aluminum rod and base, 72 x 32 x 5 1/2 in
KATZ
Ada 2 (outline)
Edition AP 6/10, 2019 polished aluminum on bronze base with patina, 24 1/2 x 15 x 5 in.
