Alex Katz Dancer 3 / Cutout / signed, numbered / edition of 20

Year: 2022
Format: 80,96 x 61,91 x 10 cm / 31.5 x 24 x 3.9 inch
Material: aluminum
Method: CUT FROM 3/8’’ ALUMINUM - POLISHED TO MIRROR FINISH.
Edition: 20
Other: signed, numbered on the base

Alex Katz Dancer 3 Cutout
Alex Katz Dancer 3 Detail

Alex Katz Dancer 3 / Cutout / signed, numbered / edition of 20

Year: 2022
Format: 80,96 x 61,91 x 10 cm / 31.5 x 24 x 3.9 inch
Material: aluminum
Method: CUT FROM 3/8’’ ALUMINUM - POLISHED TO MIRROR FINISH.
Edition: 20
Other: signed, numbered on the base

Cutouts - two-dimensional sculptures - have a long tradition in the oeuvre of Alex Katz.

Alex Katz – Dancer 3 Cutout

Year: 2022
Format: 80,96 x 61,91 x 10 cm / 31.5 x 24 x 3.9 inch
Material: aluminum
Method: CUT FROM 3/8’’ ALUMINUM - POLISHED TO MIRROR FINISH.
Edition: 20
Other: signed, numbered on the base

Alex Katz - Dancer 3 Cutout.

Alex Katz Dancer 3 Cutout from 2022 is a beautiful sculpture that focuses on an elegant dancer or rather a ballerina. Dancer 3 Cutout shows the figurative and reduced style of Alex Katz, which gives the dancer more of a two-dimensional feel. The portrait emphasizes the dancer’s long limbs and graceful posture. Dancer 3 Cutout is part of a 2019 series of paintings and silkscreens, all focused on graceful ballerina dancers in various poses on black or green backgrounds. One of the works was selected for this slightly smaller edition. The black backgrounds around the figures mimic the feeling that the dancers are on stage, with their figures illuminated by spotlights and their surroundings fading into darkness. This work is a great example of Katz’s creative skill and talent and is truly captivating to watch.

Legend has it that a mishap led to the first “cutout” by artist Alex Katz in 1959. Dissatisfied with the background in one of his paintings, he simply cut out the central figure – and mounted it on a plywood panel. Over the years, Alex Katz developed an independent form of two-dimensional “picture sculptures”. These are flat aluminum figures painted on both sides, standing freely in space.

In 2013, a complete exhibition in Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen with around 45 works from the period from 1959 onwards was dedicated to these cutouts.

Due to the missing background, they become part of their respective environment and transform with it and can be experienced as physical beings.

Alex Katz, certainly one of the most interesting artist figures from the time of Pop Art, has used his cutouts to stage portraits of individuals and groups, either as full-body or partial views, and in doing so, has transformed his animal portraits and landscapes into a different state, whereby they merge into the third dimension in space.

The enigmatic pictorial language of Alex Katz is still as topical as ever. This is reflected not least in the fact that it serves as an essential source of inspiration for representatives of recent American post-pop painting such as Richard Phillips or Elizabeth Peyton.

A copy of the Dancer Cutout was sold at Ketterer Auctions as part of the PIN Charity Auction on November 19, 2022 for 32,000 euros.

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 began to explore 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.

Ihr Ansprechpartner
Frank Fluegel
E-Mail: info(at)frankfluegel.com
Ihr Ansprechpartner
Frank Fluegel
E-Mail: info(at)frankfluegel.com
Alex Katz Dancer 3 / Cutout / signed, numbered / edition of 20


Year: 2022
Format: 80,96 x 61,91 x 10 cm / 31.5 x 24 x 3.9 inch
Material:aluminum
Method:CUT FROM 3/8’’ ALUMINUM - POLISHED TO MIRROR FINISH.
Edition:20
Other:signed, numbered on the base
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