Alex Katz

Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris-Salzburg
Private Collection
Sale: Phillips de Pury, New York, Contemporary Art, 12 May 2006, Lot 166
Private Collection
Private Collection, London
Sale: Phillips de Pury, New York, Contemporary Art, 8 November 2011, Lot 258
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Vienna, Albertina Museum, Alex Katz: Cartoons and Paintings, 2004-05 
Bologna, Museo Mambo, Cara Domani: Opere dalla Collezione Ernesto Esposito, 2012, p. 12, illustrated in colour

W Magazine, Portfolio of Kate Moss, September 2003, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the figure's skin tone tends more towards a soft pink in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is evidence of light wear and handling scattered intermittently along the extreme outer edges. Extremely close inspection reveals pinprick sized isolated and extremely unobtrusive fly spots to the figure's forehead and shoulder, as well as tiny matte pigment irregularities in the green background in isolated places. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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“She’s completely ordinary. That’s what makes her so extraordinary” was the statement Alex Katz made of supermodel and icon Kate Moss after seeing her in a New York restaurant with her then-boyfriend Johnny Depp. This could be extrapolated to describe the artist’s reductive practice of portraiture. His trademark flattened shapes and smooth, magnified saturation of colours are preferred to the more traditional practice of perspective and detailed brushwork that create depth and illusion. “I’m interested in painting new paintings. [The surface is] one of the most original things a painter can do. It’s not in your face. It’s a recessive part of the painting. People don’t even notice it unless they’re painters. Painters can look at it, and I say, ‘Eat your heart out.’” (The artist quoted in Anneliese Jakimides, “Katz’s Eye,” Bangor Metro, Bangor, September 2008, pp. 36-39).

In spite of his interest in figuration and portraiture in particular, Alex Katz is not a painter of narratives. In the present painting, no indication is given as to the time or place of the scene represented, or even the identity of the sitter. Her facial features are stripped to their bare essentials, her blank stare contrasts with her seductive pose, her hair is blonder and sleeker than in reality. Instead, the eye is attracted to elements which cling on the surface: the subtle play of light and shadow, the stark contrast between the three predominant hues, the lack of depth which makes the composition surreal and improbable, the figure’s remote expression, the screen of coolness that emanates from the canvas. Katz focusses his attention on style and appearance, which are “the things I’m more concerned about than what something means. I’d like to have style take the place of content, or the style be the content… I prefer it to be emptied of meaning, emptied of content.” (The artist quoted in Richard Marshall, “Sources of Style” in Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Alex Katz, 1986, p. 13). With it's grand scale, bold brushwork and stylised features, Kate stands as a wonderful example of Katz's exploration of media-conveyed images.