Alex Katz

In Alex Katz’s work, painting from nature, which he practised from his formative years, coexists with an activity that extends from printmaking to interventions in public space. He studied at Cooper Union in New York from 1946 to 1949, then at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine from 1949 to 1950. It was at Skowhegan that he discovered painting from nature, a practice that remains present in his work. He began exhibiting in 1954, the year of his first solo exhibition of paintings at the Roko Gallery in New York. Since that same year, he has spent summers in Lincolnville, Maine, dividing his time between that town and New York. His early works draw on several aspects of American culture and society in the mid-20th century, notably television, film and advertising.

From 1965 onwards, Katz also developed a printmaking practice, producing editions in lithography, etching, screenprinting, woodcut and linocut. In 1977, he designed a frieze of 23 women’s heads in portrait for a billboard above Times Square. Three years later, the Art in Architecture programme of the United States General Services Administration commissioned him to create an oil painting on canvas as a mural for the new United States Attorney’s Building at Foley Square, New York. The presentation of his prints at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1974 preceded a touring retrospective of his paintings and cutouts, organised in 1986 under the title Alex Katz. In 1998, the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center presented an overview of his landscapes: nearly forty pared-down paintings with urban or pastoral motifs. In 2015, Alex Katz at The Met, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, brought together drawings, prints and paintings and covered almost the entirety of his career. The Albertina in Vienna and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston hold comprehensive collections of his prints.

Works recorded at auction

Lempertz · Lot 503

Connie I

Bleistift auf Karton

Auction date : 2025-05-31

Published result : 6300 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 6000

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Kornfeld · Lot 748

Lincolnville

Oil on hardboard

Original catalogue wording

Lincolnville
Öl auf Hartfaserplatte

Catalogue period : 2019-06-13

Published result : 32000 CHF

Hammer price, excluding fees

Estimate : CHF 20000

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Kornfeld · Lot 749

Winterscene

Oil on hardboard

Original catalogue wording

Winterscene
Öl auf Hartfaserplatte

Catalogue period : 2019-06-13

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

Estimate : CHF 25000

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Schuler · Lot 3282

Rushing Brook I

Oil on hardboard

Original catalogue wording

Rushing Brook I
Öl auf Hartfaserplatte

Catalogue period : 2017-12-15

Published result : 17000 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 8000–12000

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Lempertz · Lot 647

Untitled

Oil on hardboard

Original catalogue wording

Ohne Titel
Öl auf Hartfaser

Auction date : 2016-06-04

Published result : 39680 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 25000

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Lempertz · Lot 648

Late Afternoon Blue

Oil on hardboard

Original catalogue wording

Late Afternoon Blue
Öl auf Hartfaser

Auction date : 2016-06-04

Published result : 22320 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 20000

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Germann

Winter Revisited, 1993

Oil on painting panel.

Original catalogue wording

Winter Revisited, 1993
Öl auf Malplatte.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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Germann

Stormy Sky, ca. 2000

Oil on painting panel.

Original catalogue wording

Stormy Sky, ca. 2000
Öl auf Malplatte.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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Germann

Night

Oil on painting panel.

Original catalogue wording

Night
Öl auf Malplatte.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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Germann

Meadow, 1996

Oil on painting panel.

Original catalogue wording

Meadow, 1996
Öl auf Malplatte.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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Germann

Pier, 1997

Oil on painting panel.

Original catalogue wording

Pier, 1997
Öl auf Malplatte.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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Germann

The Path, 2006

Oil on painting panel.

Original catalogue wording

The Path, 2006
Öl auf Malplatte.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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Germann

Washington Square, 2008

Oil on wood

Original catalogue wording

Washington Square, 2008
Öl auf Holz.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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Germann

Green Forest

Oil on wood

Original catalogue wording

Green Forest
Öl auf Holz.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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