Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Alex Katz is recognized as a leading member of the new American realists, who re-embraced figurative art in the 1960s when Abstract Expressionism was the predominant style. Although representational, Katz’s work captures an abstracted stylization that recalls modern artists like Paul Cezanne and Juan Gris, as well as the cartoon-like simplicity of some of his Pop art contemporaries. Although his drawings—which often serve as studies for his large, colorful paintings—became softer as over time, they continue to display Katz’s clarity of observation and connection to his subjects. Many featured his family and friends as subjects, such as this image of his daughter-in-law Vivien Bittencourt.