Alex Katz

June 29 – September 8, 2002

New York painter Alex Katz belongs in a class all his own – or, more accurately, a style all his own. Since his first paper cutout collages, done in the 1950s, through large-scale portraits, up to his recent landscapes, Katz has brought a consistent voice of realism to contemporary art. It is clear that Katz’s subjects are taken from life – his wife, son, house, friends, and the landscape that he sees. Starting with small-scale paintings and prints, Katz’s work took a dramatic shift in the early 1960s, with a noticeable increase in size and shift in scale. For example, the image of a face was cropped so that only a portion would fill an 8 by 12 foot canvas. With the shift in size came a less expressive, flatter surface. With a consistent painting style, showing only subtle changes over his long successful career, Katz does not fit easily into any category. This exhibition was a review of Katz’s work and included early paintings, collages, prints, cutouts, drawings, and larger scale paintings. The majority of works were on loan from Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine as gifts of the artist.