Alex Katz

Timothy Taylor Gallery is proud to announce an exhibition of new paintings by the renowned American artist Alex Katz.

Now in his eighty-second year, Alex Katz is one of the most significant artists of his generation. His distinctive portraits and landscapes are noted for their flat surfaces, even light, and economy of line. As a young painter in New York during the 1950s, Katz developed a minimal aesthetic that was both a reaction to Abstract Expressionism and a response to a populist culture that, via the television and cinema screen, was rapidly turning images into icons. Katz has always been that intriguing thing: a painterʼs painter. His influence is widely felt and many of todayʼs most successful contemporary artists from Peter Doig to Elizabeth Peyton acknowledge their debt to him.

This exhibition premieres a series of recent portraits of Katzʼs friends and family. In Three People 2009, Katz depicts his immediate family: Ada, his wife and lifelong muse, together with their son, Vincent and daughter-in-law, Vivien. As is the case with all Katzʼs large-scale works regardless of subject, the viewer is once again caught between comprehending an image and an abstraction.

Katzʼs practice has long been concerned with seeing rather than representation, and it is an objective and engaged eye that elicits his cool and restrained style. In Marina 2009, Katzʼs sitter appears enigmatic and distant. Although frozen for an eternal instant, his subject nevertheless evokes the perfection and poise of an ancient sculpture or a character from a Quattrocento fresco painting while still appearing unquestionably fresh and contemporary.

Alex Katz has been the subject of over 200 solo exhibitions and been included in nearly 500 group shows internationally since 1951. Katz has been the recipient of numerous awards and his work is held in over 100 public collections worldwide. A number of important works were recently donated to the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate, as part of the nationwide ARTIST ROOMS project.

From 15 May to 21 September 2010, the National Portrait Gallery, London will present an exhibition of Katzʼs works, most notably the early three dimensional group portrait of Manhattanʼs literary and artistic party scene, One Flight Up 1968.