Artist Spotlight: Alex Katz

yartlondon
5 days ago
2 min read

"I've always wanted to make paintings that you could see across the room, paintings that grab your eye and just hold it."

One of the most iconic and influential figures in American art, Alex Katz is known for his unmistakable style: vibrant, large-scale portraits and landscapes that balance abstraction with figuration in a way that feels effortlessly modern.

Emerging in the 1950s amid a dominance of Abstract Expressionism, Katz carved out his own path by embracing figurative art at a time when it was seen as out of step with the art world’s trends. His crisp lines, bold colour palettes, and simplified forms stood in contrast to the emotional intensity of other artists of the time. In doing so, Katz became a quiet revolutionary, ushering in a new visual language that helped pave the way for movements like Pop Art.

Katz's early work was shaped by his experience studying at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine, where he developed a lifelong connection to landscape painting. Yet nowadays, it is his portraits that remain most iconic. His muses often include close friends, family and most notably, his wife and lifelong partner Ada, who has appeared in more than 250 of his works.

Now aged 97, Katz’s work is celebrated globally, housed in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Whitney, and Tate, among many others and influence can be felt in the work of countless contemporary artists, from David Salle to Elizabeth Peyton. But despite his fame and age, Katz remains deeply rooted in his artistic philosophy: that art should be seen and felt in real time.