Before the rise of Pop Art proper, Alex Katz developed an iconic style of figurative painting in the early 1960s- influenced by film, television, and billboard advertising. Seemingly detached and incredibly stylish, he created portraits of the New York scene as well as idyllic landscapes. Printmaking plays an equally central role in Katz's work. He uses lithographs, etchings, silkscreens, woodcuts and linocuts to reproduce, reflect and further reduce his bold aesthetic, while retaining the radiant color characteristic for his paintings. Since the first edition in 2011, Katz has almost doubled his output of prints-this timely new edition includes his complete prints, cutout editions, artists' books, and also lists his works of applied art like book illustrations and public art projects. New essays and interviews with the artist give profound insights into the work of one of the foremost American artists of the present.
When ALEX KATZ (*1927, New York City) began his artistic career in the 1950s, Abstract Expressionism was the reigning style. Ahead of his time, he created stylized portraits against flat, monochrome backgrounds. From 1965 onwards, he embarked on a prolific career in printmaking, exhausting all its possibilities: from traditional craftsmanship to state-of-the-art reproduction techniques.