Alex Katz: New York/Maine - Tapa dura

For decades, painter Alex Katz has split his time between New York and Maine, and the two very different locales have left their marks on his work. This collection, drawing on the large collection of Katz’s paintings held by the Colby College Museum of Art, is the first to highlight the distinctions between the works created in each place.

After attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 1949, Katz bought a studio in the rural town of Lincolnville, Maine in 1954 and began to spend his summers there. The effect on his work was immediately apparent. While he continued to produce striking New York cityscapes, he also began to paint the quieter landscape he saw in Maine. The elegance of New York interiors, meanwhile, gave way in the Maine months to paintings of outdoor leisure activities. And close-up portraits of urban faces—of which Katz was a master—were replaced with “portraits” of memorable trees, thickets against late-evening light, and flower-strewn meadows.

A fully comprehensive survey of Katz’s work, this beautifully produced volume offers a new way to understand the whole of his remarkable career.

Veit Ziegelmaier is an art historian, curator, and head of the collection of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg.