Alex Katz: Flowers

Katz in full bloom: a concise overview of his floral motifs

Flowers are a favored subject in the recent paintings of American artist Alex Katz (born 1927). After noticing the dynamism that blooming flowers brought to his group portraits, the artist homed in on the flowers themselves, working in nature to directly capture the light and atmosphere that lend them their bright colors. His carefully executed signature strokes and planes of flat colors are manifest in his flower series, but Katz has also employed a subtler wet-on-wet technique, in which the last stroke of paint is applied before the first one has had time to dry, engendering a sense of immediacy. This volume accompanies the first exhibition of Katz’s flower paintings in Asia, held at Thaddaeus Ropac, Seoul, and features previously unseen works from the artist’s flower series as well as new portraits, whose subjects are depicted in botanical settings.