Alex Katz (알렉스카츠) is best known for his figurative paintings: The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, he was born in New York in 1927. As a pioneer of Pop Art, he always concentrated on the essentials and early on he began to work with simplified forms and contrasting color compositions. Many exhibitions took place around the world with his artworks during the last years. His main works are various Flowers like Spring Flowers, Yellow Flags, Blue Flags or Wildflowers. But he also does portraits, mostly of his wife Ada Katz as in Big Red Smile, Red Hat Ada or Blue Umbrella. Newer editions of him are Homage to Monet or Homage to Degas besides the Black Dress or Coca Cola Girl Series. His art is diverse, but always has beauty as its central theme and his works sell very well at auctions. Alex Katz can now look back on more than 200 solo shows and around 500 group exhibitions; his diverse works are part of over 100 collections worldwide. Alex Katz lives and works in New York and Maine.
Of particular interest is the lithograph “White Petunia” from 1969. A graphic work in the permanent collection of the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art New York) and the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art New York). FRANK FLUEGEL GALERIE also has a copy of the print in the unsaleable collection.
In 2022 The Flowers Portfolio by Alex Katz was published. It includes Red Dogwood, Purple Tulips, Peonies, Goldenrod and Azaleas on yellow which are available as original prints.
In 2023 Autumn 4 original print was published as well as a new woodcut with flowers: Alex Katz Freesia. The Autumn series will be continued in 2024 with more new editions besides Spring Series. A new Alex Katz edition has just been published: Olivia 1. Here as well, there will be a whole series of portraits of Olivia that will be published in 2025. Shortly before that, Alex Katz Red Tree, Elizabeth and Summer 2024 have been published. The three works were presented for the first time together with Spring 1-3 at Art Basel in Miami 2024.
Since the 1980s, Alex Katz has been the outstanding representative of Cool Painting and one of the most influential painters worldwide. For a whole generation of artists, Alex Katz has become a veritable cult figure.
The artist Orit Fuchs from Israel, who is also in the program at Frank Fluegel Galerie, is clearly inspired by the characteristic Alex Katz portraits with the monochrome background.
The artworks “Ulla in Black Hat”, “Vivien in Black Hat” or Blue Umbrella are the most sought-after works among collectors alongside Orange Hat, Red Band and Big Red Smile and are in no way inferior to icons such as an Andy Warhol Marilyn. In 2018, the german Manager Magazine ran the headline: Alex Katz – an investment for hedonists. Paintings by Alex Katz are now on a par with those of his Pop Art colleagues such as Andy Warhol in terms of price development, although the prices here are nowhere near as high and, above all, almost all motifs are still available to buy.
In addition to the Straw Hat series, the artworks Sunrise and Halsey were published at the end of 2022. The Ada portfolio, which consists of ten screen-printed portraits of his muse and wife Ada, is outstanding.
On october 21st, 2024 Alex Katz has been awarded the National Medal of Arts, a designation for US artists and philanthropists given out by the White House.
“It was completely unexpected. I’m overwhelmed by the honour—particularly, having the American government taking fine artists so seriously. Of the other artists who received it, Robert Rauschenberg is like a hero to me with his relationship to society. He gave a lot back and I try to work in his footsteps.” —Alex Katz
The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the federal government. It is awarded by the president of the United States to individuals or groups who are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support, and availability of the arts in the United States.
Selected Exhibitions since the year 2000:
- 2000: Regarding Alex Katz at Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, July 15 – September 10.
- 2001: Alex Katz Small Paintings traveling exhibition organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
- 2002: Alex Katz- In Your Face at Kunst-Und Ausstellungshalle Der Bundesrepublik, Bonn, Germany, May 9 – August 18.
- 2003: Alex Katz – Cutouts at Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, February 13 – April 27.
- 2004: Alex Katz: Cartoons and Paintings at the Albertina Museum Vienna, Austria, December 16, 2004 – February 20, 2005.
- 2005: Alex Katz at the Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Malaga, Spain, March 4 – June 12.
- Alex Katz‘ Collages at the Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, Maine, June 27 – September 28.
- 2006: Alex Katz in Maine traveling exhibition organized by the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine.
- Alex Katz: The Sixties at PaceWildenstein Gallery, New York, NY, April 27 – June 17.
- Alex Katz in European Collections at Langen Foundation, Neuss, Germany, September 3 – January 28.
- Alex Katz Paints Ada 1957-2005 at The Jewish Museum, New York, NY, October 27, 2006 – March 18, 2007.
- Alex Katz: Woodcuts and Linocuts at the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, October 12, 2006 – January 28, 2007.
- 2007: Alex Katz: New York at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, February 27 – May 20.
- 2008: Alex Katz: Seeing, Drawing, Making traveling exhibition organized by The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida.
- 2009: Alex Katz: An American Way Of Seeing traveling exhibition organized by the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland; Musée Grenoble, Grenoble and the Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve, Germany.
- 2010: Alex Katz Portraits at The National Portrait Gallery, London, May 13 – September 21.
- Alex Katz Prints at the Albertina, Vienna, May 28 – September 19.
- Alex Katz: New Works at the Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine, June 12 – December 31.
- Alex Katz: Prints, Paintings, Cutouts at the Kunsthalle Würth, Schwäbisch Hall, Germany, October 5, 2010 – April 3, 2011.
- Alex Katz at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, December 16, 2010 – December 11, 2011.
2011: Alex Katz at the Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany, January 20, 2011 – April 9, 2012.
- Alex Katz: Naked Beauty at the Kestnergesellschaft Hanover, November 25, 2011 – February 5, 2012.
- 2012: Alex Katz: Give Me Tomorrow at the Tate St. Ives, May 19, 2012 – September 23, 2012 and at the Turner Contemporary, Margate, October 6, 2012 – January 13, 2013.
- Alex Katz: Maine/New York at Colby College Musem of Art, Maine. July 14, 2012 – December 30th 2012.
- 2013: Alex Katz: Landscapes at the Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, March 7, 2013 – May 12, 2013.
- Alex Katz: New York/ Maine Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, March 9, 2013 – July 7, 2013.
- Alex Katz / Felix Valloton Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne , March 23, 2013 – June 9, 2013.
- 2014: ARTIST ROOMS Alex Katz at the Tate Modern, London, April 26, 2014 – March 1, 2015.
- Alex Katz: Cartoons, Drawings, Paintings at the Albertina, Vienna, May 28, 2014 – Sept 29 2014.
- 2015: Alex Katz Black Dress. GALERIE FRANK FLUEGEL, Nuremberg. 30. October 2015 – 15. February 2016
- 2015: Alex Katz: This is Now, at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, June 21, 2015 – September 26, 2015 and at the
- Guggenheim, Bilboa, October 23, 2015 – February 7th, 2016.
- Brand-New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950’s at Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, July 11, 2015 – October 18, 2015.
- Alex Katz at the Met, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 8, 2015 – June 26, 2016.
- 2016: Alex Katz: Quick Light at the Serpentine Gallery, London, June 2, 2016 – September 11, 2016.
- Alex Katz: Small Paintings at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, Maine, June 26, 2016 – August 17, 2016.
- 2017 Alex Katz – Celebrating 90 Years, GALERIE FRANK FLUEGEL, Nuernberg. 06. Ocrober 2017 – 30 January 2018
- 2017: Brand-New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950’s at the Cleveland Museum of Art, April 30, 2017 – August 6, 2017.
- 2017 lex Katz: Black and White, Tampa Museum of Art February 23, 2017 – May 29, 2017
- Alex Katz: Subway Drawings, Timothy Taylor 16×34, New York April 27, 2017 – June 30, 2017
- Exhibition 2018 Brandhorst Museum, Munich
- Alex Katz Coca Cola Girls. GALERIE FRANK FLUEGEL. 30. February 2019 – 30. June 2019
- 2020 Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, China
- 2021 Alex Katz Fleeting Worlds, Galerie Ropac, Paris, France
- 2022 MART, Rovereto, Trento, Italy, May 14, 2022 – September 18, 2022
- 2022 Thyssen-Bornemisza Nationalmuseum, Madrid, Spain.
- 2022 Alex Katz Collages, National Museum of Art Osaka, Osaka, Japan.
- 2022 Alex Katz: 95th Birthday, Albertina, Vienna, Austria
- 2022 Alex Katz “Gathering” Retrospective, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA.
- 2023 Alex Katz – Cool Painting, Albertina, Vienna, Austria
- 2023 Alex Katz Homage to Degas, Voorlinden Museum, Wassenaar, Netherlands
- 2023 “Alex Katz”, Gladstone Gallery, Seoul, Korea
- 2023 “Sunrise,” MAK Center for Art and Architecture, The Schindler House, Los Angeles
- 2023 “Collaborations with Poets,” Poetry Foundation, Chicago, Il.
- 2023 Alex Katz – Yuuhisai Koudoukan, Kyoto, Japan
- 2024 ALEX KATZ: PORTRAITS AND LANDSCAPES, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany.
- 2024 Alex Katz: Claire, Grass and Water, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy.
April 16, 2024 – September 29, 2024
- 2024 Alex Katz – 60 Years of Printmaking, Thaddaeus Ropac Paris Pantin, France
- 2024 Alex Katz: Seasons, July 4th, 2024 – September 8th, 2024, Museum of Modern Art (Moma), New York, USA.
- 2025 Alex Katz : Theater and Dance, The Baker Museum, Naples, Florida, USA.
October 12, 2024 – February 2, 2025
- 2025 Alex Katz : Theater and Dance
Frye Museum, Seattle, WA
February 22, 2025 – June 8, 2025
- Alex Katz: The Venice Paintings
Thaddaeus Ropac Pantin, Paris, France.
February 15, 2025 – April 12, 2025
- Alex Katz: White Lotus, Gray Chicago, July 11, 2025 – September 20, 2025
Alex Katz - Master of Cool.
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