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THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL/MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 4 DECEMBER 2008 15
Listings Miami
Alex Katz in his studio
The sensation of seeing
From small sketches of live situations to speed painting
Alex Katz is one of America’s leading
painters. His work has been the subject
of nearly 200 solo exhibitions since
1954. His portraits and landscapes capture
American life in a flat, elegant and realistic
style all his own. Now 81, Katz is receiving
increased attention with solo exhibitions in
Milan, Paris, Finland, Grenoble and New
York in 2009. He was honoured on 2
December in Miami by NetJets at their private
collectors party. Those previously honoured
include Richard Prince and Jaume Plensa.
The Art Newspaper: Your work has received
attention lately, especially from European
collectors and museums. What do you
think accounts for this renewed interest?
Alex Katz: My work is relevant to what’s
going on in European art today, where there’s
been a return to painting.
TAN: Private Domain [1969] sold in the
range of $1m at Art Basel in Switzerland
last year. Did you ever think your work
could sell for this amount?
AK: No, I didn’t go into painting to make
money or to become famous. My first six
shows were commercial flops, but artists
started to buy my work, so I felt more secure.
TAN: You began painting in a hard-edge
style in the mid-1950s, when artists like
Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline were
producing abstract expressionist work.
What made you want to defy the trend?
AK: I was painting the sensations of looking at
people and nature, and I thought it was possible
to paint something new that was realistic.
TAN: Were you consciously attempting to
paint in a post-abstract way?
AK: Oh yeah, definitely. I was reacting
against abstract art, but I used the scale and
grammar from the abstract painters. I thought
they were terrific.
TAN: Would you say your painting is more
influenced by traditional portraiture than
commercial art?
AK: Yes, it’s more traditional, but I’ve been
influenced by billboards and advertising. I
think my paintings are definitely traditional.
TAN: Are there any portrait artists who
have influenced your work?
AK: The Egyptian sculptor Thutmose
captures the style I want to convey with his
portrait of Nefertiti; I think he’s totally
fabulous. I also like the Japanese artist
Utamaro, Matthew Brady’s photographs,
Goya and Velázquez.
TAN: How do you work? From
photographs, live models or memory?
AK: I paint small sketches from live situations,
which I enlarge. In the early 1950s I used
photographs because I liked their flatness, but
by the late 50s I started painting from life. In
the 70s and 80s, if I saw a photo I liked I’d get
people to pose in those same positions.
TAN: It’s well known that you paint quickly.
How does speed influence your work?
AK: I try to get in the immediate present and
to paint the sensation of what I see. The
preparation process can take months, but the
actual painting can take six hours. Speed
allows me to enter into the world of my
unconscious, and I’m flying when I’m there.
TAN: Why is it important for you to rid
your pictures of humanistic and
psychological content?
AK: All that stuff is past tense; I’m trying to
get into the present. Humanistic stuff is heavy
baggage. I’m trying to paint what I’m looking
at. It’s optical. I’m trying to define what I see.
It’s much more of an intellectual challenge.
Charmaine Picard
Galleries showing Alex Katz in ABMB: Richard Gray Gallery,
Chicago (J10); Jablonka Galerie, Cologne (F8); PaceWildenstein,
New York (H10); Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg (E7)
Upcoming exhibitions:
Galleria Monica de Cardenas, via Francesco Viganò, 4, Milan,
until 31 January 2009
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 7 Rue Debelleyme, Paris, 14 January-
14 February 2009
“Alex Katz: Seeing, Drawing, Making”, The Gallery at Windsor,
Vero Beach, 6 December-20 April 2009, travels to the Parrish Art
Museum, Southampton, 7 February-12 April 2010
Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland, 13 February-3 May
2009, travels to the Musée Grenoble, France, 4 July-29
September 2009, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Germany, 26 October
2009-7 February 2010
PaceWildenstein, New York, 8 May-6 June 2009
Non-commercial
ArtCenter/
South Florida
800 Lincoln Road,
Miami Beach
www.artcentersf.org
Kaiju Monster Invasion:
Miami Beach
Until 4 January
Bakehouse
Art Complex
561 NW 32nd Street, Miami
www.bacfl.org
Paraphernalia
4 December-25 January
Bass Museum of Art
2121 Park Avenue,
Miami Beach
www.bassmuseum.org
Russian Dreams
4 December-8 February
Boca Raton Museum
of Art
501 Plaza Real,
Boca Raton
www.bocamuseum.org
American Modernism
1920-50
Until 8 March
Visiones: 20th-Century
Selections from the
Nassau County Museum
of Art
Until 7 December
José Clemente Orozco:
the Graphic Work
Until 7 December
Color Me New York:
Photographs by Benn
Mitchell
Until 18 January
Cartier Dome
Miami Beach Botanical
Garden, 2000 Convention
Center Drive, Miami Beach
www.fondation.cartier.com
David Lynch: Diamonds,
Gold and Dreams
Until 7 December
Center For Visual
Communication
541 NW 27th Street, Miami
www.visual.org
Rauschenberg in Series:
a 30-Year Retrospective
1978-2008
Until 31 January
Cisneros Fontanals
Art Foundation
1018 North Miami Avenue,
Miami
www.cifo.org
The Prisoner’s Dilemma:
Selections from the Ella
Fontanals-Cisneros
Collection
Until 1 March
Freedom Tower
600 Biscayne Boulevard,
Miami
Fondazione Ambrosiana:
Leonardo Da Vinci,
Tiziano Vecellio, Albrecht
Dürer and Giovanni
Ambrogio De Predis
Until 17 December
Frost Art Museum
Florida International
University, SW 107 Avenue
& Eighth Street, Miami
http://thefrost.fiu.edu
Modern Masters
from the Smithsonian
WWW.THEARTNEWSPAPER.TV
American Art Museum
Until 1 March
Simulacra and Essence:
the Paintings of Luisa
Basnuevo
Until 4 April
Florencio Gelabert:
Intersections
Until 28 February
John Henry: Drawing in
Space, the Peninsula
Project Illustrated
Until 9 March
Locust Projects
105 NW 23rd Street, Miami
www.locustprojects.org
Inevitable Continuum: 10
Years of Locust Projects,
curated by Gean Moreno
and Claire Breukel
Until 31 December
Lowe Art Museum
University of Miami,
1301 Stanford Drive, Miami
www.miami.edu/lowe
Charles Biederman:
an American Idealist
Until 18 January
Margulies Collection
at the Warehouse
591 NW 27th Street, Miami
www.margulieswarehouse.com
Magdalena Abakanowicz:
Hurma 1994-95
Until 25 April
Isaac Julien: Western
Union, Small Boats, 2007
Until 25 April
Oil Rich Niger Delta
by George Osodi
Until 25 April
Photography
and Sculpture:
a Correlated Exhibition
Until 25 April
Miami Art Museum
101 West Flagler Street,
Miami
www.miamiartmuseum.org
MAC@MAM Presents
Chantal Akerman: Moving
Through Time and Space
Until 25 January
Yinka Shonibare, MBE:
a Flying Machine for Every
Man, Woman and Child
Until 18 January
Objects of Value
Until 21 February
Museum of
Contemporary Art
770 NE 125th Street, Miami
www.mocanomi.org
Anri Sala: Purchase
Not by Moonlight
Until 21 March
Moca at Goldman
Warehouse
404 NW 26th Street, Miami
www.mocanomi.org
The Possibility
of an Island
4 December-21 March
Rubell Family
Collection
95 NW 29th Street, Miami
www.rubellfamilycollection.com
30 Americans
Until 30 May
Sagamore Art Hotel
Sagamore Video Garden,
South Beach
between Lincoln Road
and 17th Street
www.sagamorehotel.com
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Olaf Breuning
Until 7 December
Spanish
Cultural Center
800 Douglas Road, Suite
170, Coral Gables
www.ccemiami.org
¡Mujeres al Proyecto!
Spanish Designers
for the Habitat:
Art and Industrial Design
Until 18 December
The Station
Midblock East, 3250 NE
1st Avenue/Midtown
Boulevard, Miami
www.thestationmiami.org
The Station 2008
Until 7 December
Wolfsonian
Florida International
University, 1001
Washington Avenue,
Miami Beach
www.wolfsonian.fiu.edu
Democrazy:
an Installation
by Francesco Vezzoli
Until 7 December
Thoughts on Democracy
Until 7 December
American Streamlined
Design: the World
of Tomorrow
Until 17 May
World Class Boxing
170 NW 23rd Street, Miami
www.worldclassboxing.org
Carla Klein:
Untitled 2005-08
Until January
Zoe Strauss:
Works in Progress
Until January
Commercial
Abba Fine Art
233 NW 36th Street,
Wynwood, Miami
www.abbafineart.com
Fusion: Group Show
Until 8 January
Adamar Fine Art
4141 NE 2nd Avenue,
Suite 107, Miami
www.popnart.com
Andy Warhol, Then and
Now: Works by Andy
Warhol, Photographs by
William John Kennedy
Until 3 January
Alejandra von Hartz
Gallery
2630 NW 2nd Avenue,
Miami
Pablo Siquier
Until 31 January
Al Sabah Art
& Design Collection
NE 39th Street
and 1st Court,
Miami Design District
www.alsabahcollection.com
Al Sabah Collection
Dubai Gallery Preview
Until 7 December
Altreforme
4141 Building, 4141 NE 2nd
Avenue, Design District
www.altreforme.com
Launch of Altreforme and
Aziz Sariyer Collection
Until 6 December