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museumsAlex Katz Paints AdaThe Jewish Museum, New York, New YorkAlex Katz Paints Ada at New York’s Jewish Museum is an exhibit of 37mesmerizing paintings by figurative artist Alex Katz of his wife,Ada DelMoro Katz. The exhibition reflects nearly fifty years of marriage andreflects a life vibrant with continuity and consistency.Exposing the entire spectrum of her being, the 37 paintings reveal Ada asmodel, wife, muse, mother, friend, hostess and cool-headed woman.Talking with Art and Living candidly about his art, Alex Katz says that the exhibitis a sort of a socio-economic statement of a “gilded bohemian life,” since Ada isAlex Katz, The Black Dress, 1960. Oil on linen. Brandhorst Collection. Art © Alex Katz/Licensedby VAGA, New York, NY. Image courtesy The Jewish Museum.presented throughout the exhibition clad in the fashions of each painting’s respectivedecade. According to Katz, “Clothes define people as much as anything else.Clothes are the social discriminator of the U.S.”“I looked for a chronological sweep to represent the five decades as comprehensivelyas possible,” says Ruth Beesch, Deputy Director for Program at The JewishMuseum and curator of the show.“There probably is a little bit of weight to the sixtiesin the show because there are so many fabulous works then. I also tried to balanceout what I thought were several themes within Alex’s portrayal of Ada.”Prominent compositions in the exhibition are:Ada as a full standing figure,Adawith friends and family, Ada repeated in the painting and what Beesch calls“Existential Ada”.“Existential Ada is where she becomes a formal object in the paintings,”says Beesch. “In this fourth representation they’re more about Alex’s playingwith her as a subject or object on the canvas. Upside Down Ada is an example.”Thefifth and final represented theme is “Style and Glamour”, in which “Ada is an objectrepresenting a very stylish and glamourish sitter who is the object of Alex’s admirationfor that style,” says Beesch.Ada, with sensuously full lips, dark eyes and definitive eyebrows, is always tastefullydressed.The viewer sees a woman who is self-possessed and assured. As Katzsays,“She’s very contained.”Perhaps that’s what makes us fall under her enchanting spell. Diane DunneAlex Katz, Red Coat, 1982. Oil on linen. Art © Alex Katz/Licensed by VAGA,New York, NY. Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.October 27, 2006 – March 18, 20071109 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York212.423.3271 • www.thejewishmuseum.org22 2006 Issue 4