Portland Public Library

Alex Katz, gathering, edited by Katherine Brinson with Levi Prombaum ; with contributions by David Breslin, Katherine Brinson, Jennifer Y. Chuong, David Max Horowitz, Arthur Jafa, Katie Kitamura, Wayne Koestenbaum, Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Kevin Lotery, Prudence Peiffer and Levi Prombaum

eng

Includes bibliographical references

illustrations

no index present

non fiction

Alex Katz

catalogsbibliography

1324251040

edited by Katherine Brinson with Levi Prombaum ; with contributions by David Breslin, Katherine Brinson, Jennifer Y. Chuong, David Max Horowitz, Arthur Jafa, Katie Kitamura, Wayne Koestenbaum, Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Kevin Lotery, Prudence Peiffer and Levi Prombaum

gathering

"Across nearly eight decades of intense creative production, Alex Katz has sought to capture a state of "absolute awareness" in paint. Whether evoking a glancing exchange between friends or a shaft of light filtered through trees, he has aimed to create a record of "quick things passing," compressing the flux of everyday life into a condensed burst of optical perception. Published on the occasion of the artist's first US career retrospective in more than 30 years, Alex Katz: Gathering offers a definitive account of Katz's artistic project, demonstrating both its marked coherence and restless evolution. Generously illustrated, the book features the full breadth of the artist's work across mediums and formats, from intimate sketches of riders on the New York City subway in the late 1940s to the rapturous, monumentally scaled landscapes that have dominated his recent production. Essays by artists, writers and art historians offer fresh, authoritative overviews of the artist's practice alongside more focused considerations of specific facets of his art, including his flower paintings, collages, prints, freestanding "cutouts" and set design collaborations with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. A sourcebook of historical reviews, essays and poems rounds out the volume, which offers an overdue reassessment of the artist's oeuvre"--, Provided by publisher

Director's foreword / Richard Armstrong -- Acknowledgments / Katherine Brinson -- Minor subjects / David Breslin -- Personal effects in Alex Katz's portraits / Levi Prombaum -- The now is sublime: Alex Katz's landscapes / Katherine Brinson -- Face is the place / Arthur Jafa -- Alex Katz: Abecedarium of a style / Ewa Lajer-Burcharth -- Plates -- Wild flowers: Alex Katz's persistent blooms / Prudence Peiffer -- Staring blankly: Reflections on Alex Katz's collages / Wayne Koestenbaum -- Dance double: Alex Katz's scenography / Kevin Lotery -- Together alone: The group paintings of Alex Katz / Katie Kitamura -- Surfaces, surfacing: Flatness as physical fact in Alex Katz's work / Jennifer Y. Chuong -- Realist illusions: Alex Katz's cutouts / David Max Horowitz -- Sourcebook -- Selected exhibition history -- Selected bibliography -- List of plates -- Contributors