The motif from the Chance series shows Darinka Novitovic Chase, another woman from the New York area and Alex Katz’s friends. In 1984, during her first week in New York City, Darinka Novitovic Chase was introduced to Alex and Ada Katz by their son Vincent, a friend of Katz’s sister. They invited her to dinner, and afterwards Katz – an American figurative artist known for his bold use of color – asked Darinka to pose for a painting. She sat for about eight paintings, and each required three to four sessions lasting no more than an hour, always at the same time of day to keep the lighting consistent. Alex Katz talked eloquently during these sessions, which made the otherwise static experience lively and exciting, Darinka Chase recounts. Sitting for Alex Katz was intellectually stimulating but not too physically challenging, Darinka says, because he doesn’t require his models to stand completely still. When defining her relationship with Katz, Darinka intentionally doesn’t use the word “muse.” She says, “Posing for Alex is better than going to a French new wave movie; it’s like being in one. I never thought of the finished works as portraits of me – just great paintings.”

Friends describe Darinka Novitovic, an artist and hostess at Florent restaurant in Greenwich Village in New York, as a kind of downtown Babe Paley. She has been frequently painted by Alex Katz and is also immortalized in some prints and cutouts.

Alex Katz / Pioneer of Pop Art

Alex Katz is especially famous 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 dealt with simplified forms and contrasting color compositions. His art is diverse, but always has beauty as its central theme. The artist can now look back on more than 200 solo 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.