from a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY in 2022/23

 

The artist, Alex Katz met his wife, Ada Del Moro (American born 1928) in 1957. 

They were married 3 months later and, together still, they are in their 90s now.  

 

 

 

Self portrait, 1960, oil on linen.

Alex Katz. American born 1927. Private collection loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim in 2022

 

 

 

In her time, one of the only female researchers at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (until the birth of their son),  she is the mother of one son.

 

Alex Katz has painted more than 300 images of his wife. 

 

Ada is her husband’s muse. 

 

His style evolved early to austere, mostly figurative, minimalist, pristine and highly focused. 

 

 

 

Ada in Black Sweater, 1957, oil on board.  

Alex Katz, American born 1927. Loaned to the Solomon R. Guggenheim in 2022 by Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine

 

 

 

 

Ada, oil on board, 1957;

Alex Katz, born 1927, American.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. 

 

 

 

 

Ada Ada, oil on linen, 1959.

Sam Katz, American born 1927.  NYU Art Gallery loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY in 2022

 

The first of the artist’s multiple versions of the same subject.  Each figure is drawn from life and is not the same image copied and repeated on the canvas as with Andy Warhol.

 

 

 

 

 4 PM, 1959. Oil on linen, 

Alex Katz, American born 1927. Private collection on loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2022

 

 

 

 

The Black Dress, 1960, oil on linen. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  Private collection loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY in 2022

 

These are 6 views of Ada as she turned and sat down and moved through a cocktail party; and not one view repeated, Warhol-style, 6 times.

 

 

 

As time has gone on, the artist seems to have made stronger and stronger efforts to condense our perception of the person or scene depicted.

 

Backgrounds take on clear and often vibrant colours.  Outlines become sharper.  A great deal of focus is placed on eyes and on  fixity of gaze.

 

 

 

 

The Red Smile, oil on linen, 1963. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  Loaned to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY by the Whitney Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

The phrase used sometimes is that he has tried to capture a state of “absolute awareness” in paint. 

A record of what the eye sees in one moment without distraction.

 

 

 

 

Upside Down Ada, 1965, oil on linen. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  MOMA, NY loan to the Solomon R, Guggenheim Museum in 2022

 

 

The artist’s style is the object of both opprobrium and praise.

 

Critics have liked and disliked his autonomy: he is his own style and, while he has absorbed elements of some of the artistic styles of the many schools of art in the last 70 years, he has kept himself to himself. 

 

 

 

 

Ada and Vincent, 1967. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927. Private collection loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY in 2022

 

 

 

Critics have liked and disliked the idealized generalizations of his portraits, especially of his wife.

 

He works very quickly, wet paint on wet paint.

 

It is not this speed which delivers the momentary stillness and maximum attention to his subject’s being there in front of him  and which he is so interested in recording.

 

It is his skill honed decade after decade:

the discipline of stripping away everything around living flesh except the fact of its unambiguous and particular and self-contained presence.

 

 

 

Vincent and Tony, 1969, oil on linen.

Alex Katz, American born 1927. Art Institute of Chicago loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY in 2022

 

 

Critics have also liked and disliked that quality of his portraits which completely excludes the viewer’s participation in the scene presented.  

 

His subjects are there to be viewed as they appeared in a single moment – alive and attentive to their own thoughts.

 

That is it.  Nothing in the frame invites anyone else’s participation or even empathy.

 

The subject is present to herself (himself) and to the artist.

 

 

 

Ada with a Mirror, 1969, oil on canvas.

Alex Katz, American born 1927. ?Private collection loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim, NY in 2022

 

 

You are left with this question:

 

if we did not know how close has been the relationship of Alex and Ada Katz,

what would we think of this relationship on the basis of his portraits of her?

 

 

 

Blue Umbrella 2, 1972, oil on linen. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927. Private collection loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY

 

 

 

I am not sure;  but I think I would be perplexed. 

 

This seems to be an experiment to update figurative painting in a century when figuration has not been the vogue;

 

but not a record of love or a life together.

The horrid word ‘objectification’ hovers.

 

 

 

Black and Brown Blouse, 1976, oil on canvas. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

 

 

 

But then I would change my mind promptly;

 

because the artist has been most interested in the presence of people whom he knows, especially that of his wife;

presence and autonomy.

 

Presence is the greatest gift we give one another.

 

Autonomy is a gift of our spiritual evolution. Secular autonomy is one of our civilization (the possibility to choose our work, spouse, gender, political and religious affiliation, etc.). 

 

And here he memorializes both gifts in mature, harmonious tension in each tableau, year after since 1957;

 

both his and hers;

 

which, like precious jewels, he has placed under glass as a witness to a marriage.

 

I love this. 

 

 

 

 

Night, 1976, oil on canvas. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

 

 

 

 

 Red Coat, oil on canvas, 1982. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  On loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2016. 

 

 

 

 

 

Ada’s Black Sandals, 1987, oil on linen. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY in 2022

 

 

 

 

Ada Ada, 1991, oil on linen. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927. Private collection loan to the Solomon R Guggenheim in 2022

 

 

 

 

TBD.

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  On view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY in 2022.

This is a cutout: the painting conforms to the contours of the painted forms.  It was a pioneering invention of the artist in 1959.

 

 

 

 

Detail of Ada, 2009, oil on linen.

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  Private collection loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY in 2022.

 

 

 

 

Departure (Ada), 2016, oil on linen.

Alex Katz, American born 1927. Private loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim, NY in 2022

 

 

 

Ada Evening, 2019, oil on linen. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  Private collection loan to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2022

 

 

 

 

Ada’s Back 2, 2021, oil on linen. 

Alex Katz, American born 1927.  On loan by the artist to the Solomon R. Guggenheim, NY in 2022