Alex Katz (b. 1927, Brooklyn, New York) is one of the most influential and distinctive figures in contemporary American art. Renowned for his crisp, flat surfaces, bold use of colour, and striking economy of line, Katz forged a unique visual language that emerged in the 1950s in contrast to the dominance of Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s and 1950s. His style — often seen as a precursor to Pop Art that emerged in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s in America and Britain — melds elements of abstraction and representation, with influences ranging from Henri Matisse to mid-century American culture, film, and advertising.Over a prolific seven-decade career, Katz has created an expansive body of work encompassing portraiture, landscape, sculpture, and printmaking. His most iconic subjects include his wife and lifelong muse Ada, as well as friends, dancers, and fashionably dressed figures, often depicted in cropped, cinematic compositions that exude cool detachment and modern elegance. In his later years, Katz turned his focus toward nature, exploring light, seasons, and atmosphere in immersive large-scale landscapes.Katz has held over 200 solo exhibitions worldwide and his work is housed in major public collections including MoMA, the Whitney, the Tate, and Centre Pompidou. In 2022, he was honoured with a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, and in 2024, his monumental seasonal landscapes were displayed at MoMA in New York. That same year, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by the White House, recognising his enduring impact on American visual culture.Katz lives and works in New York City and Lincolnville, Maine, continuing to paint “the immediate present” with timeless clarity and vision.

Alex Katz

With flat planes of rich, lovely color, Alex Katz’s landscapes and portraits evoke the smooth aesthetics of advertising billboards and film.

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White Roses (2014) belongs to Alex Katz’s renowned flower paintings. Throughout his career, Katz has repeatedly explored the aesthetics of flowers such as flags, tulips, and roses, using them as a lens to study light, colour, and form.&nbsp;In this composition, he captures the interplay of natural light and delicate volume, allowing the radiant white petals to glow vividly against a boundless blue backdrop. The work seems to breathe nature itself, evoking a serene and immersive presence. Inspired by everyday motifs, Katz’s floral paintings are among his most cherished explorations of the natural world.

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“ I’m trying to get the white to the background, but when you have the strong leaves the roses become recessive, and if you lighten the leaves, the whole thing is going to look like a weak Impressionist painting. You have to figure out the balance as you go along. „

—Alex Katz