FILTER RESULTS
White Hat
199036 x 25 1/2 in. (91.4 x 64.8 cm)
Alex Katz
United States
Object Type:
Print
Medium and Support:
Color serigraph
Credit Line:
Gift of Lewis Norry and Jill Katz Norry
Accession Number:
1995.62.8
Location: Not currently on view
Edition: 73/150
Portfolio: Ada and Alex Portfolio
Based on a 1978 painting by Katz.
This is a portrait of the artist's wife, Ada. Like many artists before him, Alex Katz found his wife a convenient model. Having painted her face more than a hundred times, it has become an aesthetic thread woven throughout his body of work. Katz described Ada as "very malleable…a pretty girl cased in different roles." In fact, we see her throughout Katz's career as she gracefully ages from the time of their marriage in 1958 up to the current day.
Despite Katz's assertion that he is interested in divesting his images of meaning, it is hard for the viewer to avoid searching for emotional content in Katz's repeated portraits of himself and his wife. In traditional art making, portraits (and especially those of oneself and one's significant other) are charged with personal connotations. In addition, it is nearly impossible for us as humans to look at a face at such close range without attempting to ascribe to it some emotional content. Our desire to penetrate the surface of these paintings and Katz's insistence on refusing us that privilege creates a tension between our aesthetic and emotional senses. Katz thwarts our expectations and demands that we think differently about what a portrait is and can be.
[Gallery label text, 2005]
This is a portrait of the artist's wife, Ada. Like many artists before him, Alex Katz found his wife a convenient model. Having painted her face more than a hundred times, it has become an aesthetic thread woven throughout his body of work. Katz described Ada as "very malleable…a pretty girl cased in different roles." In fact, we see her throughout Katz's career as she gracefully ages from the time of their marriage in 1958 up to the current day.
Despite Katz's assertion that he is interested in divesting his images of meaning, it is hard for the viewer to avoid searching for emotional content in Katz's repeated portraits of himself and his wife. In traditional art making, portraits (and especially those of oneself and one's significant other) are charged with personal connotations. In addition, it is nearly impossible for us as humans to look at a face at such close range without attempting to ascribe to it some emotional content. Our desire to penetrate the surface of these paintings and Katz's insistence on refusing us that privilege creates a tension between our aesthetic and emotional senses. Katz thwarts our expectations and demands that we think differently about what a portrait is and can be.
[Gallery label text, 2005]
Bibliography
See general reference in Alex Katz catalogue raisonne, ed. Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, Germany, 2011: cat. no. 244, p. 178
Keywords
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Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- A High Style: Alex Katz's Ada and Alex Portfolio Memorial Art Gallery 5/20/2005 - 7/31/2005
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- MAGazine. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery
- Memorial Art Gallery. ARTiculate. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery, 2000--.
Portfolio List
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This object is a member of the following portfolios: