ALEX KATZ – 70S / 80S / 90S
2014-03-31The exhibition explores the progression and distillation of Katz’s distinct style through the 70s, 80s and 90s, and focuses on the thematic significance of ‘town and country’ during this period.
Katz’s distinctive portraits and landscapes are noted for their flat surfaces, even light and finessed line. Determined to pioneer a style that set him apart from his contemporaries, Katz’s interest in scale, style and American life has remained constant throughout his influential and extensive career.
Alex Katz’s work is instantly recognisable: large scale, visually pure and often cropped. In Ada, Ada, 1991, a double portrait of Katz’s wife who remains a constant presence in his work, the vocabulary of film is evident – dramatic framing, cinematic cropping, and the repeated figure suggestive of the progression of a filmstrip. The flat, blank background of the deepest aquamarine is characteristic of the absolute immediacy of Katz’s formal technique.
Katz’s subjects, from his friends and family, and the stylish New York intelligentsia that is his social circle, to vacant buildings and parks shrouded in the darkness of night – become icons, celebrated and refined to a singular clarity. His economy of line and nuanced use of colour speaks of a confidence and lucidity of vision that has evolved since the 50s.
Opposite – Vincent and Vivien, 1987
Exhibition runs through to April 17th, 2014
Timothy Taylor Gallery
15 Carlos Place
W1K 2EX
London
