By Rubén Fernández-Costa
Museums and collectors compete for the highly sought-after works of Alex Katz. A living representative of the pop art , his landscapes take over the Guggenheim and his latest paintings arrive at the Javier López gallery in Madrid.
The world's most important cultural centers and most ambitious collections are clear: the octogenarian painter Alex Katz is the artist of the moment, the authentic living representative of pop art American, natural successor to the sought-after Andy Warhol, but with his own language and style. "For every 100 euros invested in Katz's work in 2000, today you would have 756 euros, that is, we are talking about a return of 656%, as confirmed by the analysis of artprice.com, so as an investment he is a more than interesting artist," he explains to Out of Series Elisa Hernando, director of the Arte Global consultancy.
His work is found in over 100 public collections around the world. His auction record dates back to 2007, for a work from 1967. Tulips , which closed at €612,000. And the list of museums honoring him has accelerated in the last three years, including the favorite of Swiss millionaires, the Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich (2013) and the temple of contemporary art, the Tate Modern in London (2014). This fall, his creations arrive in Madrid and, especially, in Bilbao: in the capital, the Javier López gallery has been showing some of his latest paintings since October 14 (with prices starting at €350,000). And the Guggenheim has been presenting them since the 23rd of the same month. Alex Katz. Here and Now , a major retrospective of his work as a landscape artist, featuring 35 works completed over 25 years.
Perhaps unaware of this turmoil, Alex Katz (New York, 1927) himself picks up the phone after breakfast in his Soho residence in New York. "Yes, my themes are the same as those from the 1960s; if anything, I'd have changed my approach to them," he admits. While his major retrospective at the Guggenheim "is much more ambitious and attempts to capture my environmental vision of landscapes, which I began to develop in the 1990s," the new creations Javier López brings to the gallery are "very recent, made this summer in Maine." Landscapes, portraits, flowers... a succinct iconography with other, deeper underlying themes: form, surface, light. A figurative proposal, but with an abstract basis, the reason for which he himself explains: "The abstraction of the 1950s became my vocabulary." A characteristic palette of flat, strong colors that today seems natural in a space full of illustrations and evokes advertising, but that 60 years ago seemed innovative and deceptive: beneath that appearance of lightness, Alex Katz has been investigating different forms of representation for decades. With a clear obsession: capturing the present, seeing and perceiving simultaneously, the moment of flash before an image is focused.
Katz analyzes his worldview: "Sixty years ago, people thought things were constant, and many ideas seemed immutable: communism, even fashion, particular points of view. And yet, everything is variable, reality changes." He adds: "What is real, and even more so, what is realistic? That's what I ask myself: it's an aggressive idea to think that reality is fixed or unique. What I've come to understand is that everything changes." As an artist, the key to his work lies in "knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and being open to the process, being able to flow." For each specific work, he speaks of an "initial vision."
When creating his portraits—in which he usually depicts his family and friends, and especially his beloved wife, Ada, who is among his most sought-after works—and his landscapes—in which he explores the subject of perception—he follows a similar process. "Yes, the steps are the same," he says. Most of his large paintings begin as "small paintings first," in which the artist tries to "quickly capture the feeling of what I see." He then makes a series of "small-format drawings to work on the proportions." Afterward, he creates what he calls a "cartoon" on a large piece of paper, correcting and drawing details. When the scene is clear, "it's time to choose the color."
This entire process before facing the canvas itself, with the intention that "it may appear spontaneous, in the same way as Bacon's brushstrokes, but without being so in any way." Each canvas, whose value can exceed half a million euros, is painted "in a single session of about four hours, usually in the morning, in which I create two small pieces or one large one. What takes me the longest is the preparation of the work, not the execution, which I have managed to do quickly."
Katz specifically mentions "Monet's physical painting, the transposition between the physical and an atmosphere" as one of his greatest inspirations. "When I was younger, I greatly admired Cy Twombly, Piet Mondrian interested me, and Mark Rothko as well," he lists. Now he focuses on "Rembrandt's technique and craftsmanship and the sense of Picasso's work, especially his graphic work." As another Spanish example, he mentions "Goya's frescoes, which are a fantastic experience in themselves." The artist emphasizes "how impressive it is to stop and look at how Goya painted the backgrounds."
He speaks with great delight about his muse, Ada Katz, born in the Bronx, New York, to an Italian family with whom he has shared his entire life. "With my wife, I found stability: she's a researcher in biology and the fight against cancer, and also the best dancer I've ever encountered. A model with a beauty that's both American and universal. When I see photographs of her now, or even paintings I've done myself, I say to myself: 'Wow, how incredible!'"
The fickle art world doesn't concern him, but he recognizes the importance of "the media, self-photographs, and even the fashion world"—he recently designed window displays and some objects for Barney's department store, creating a huge media coverage—and has clear ideas about what he'll do next. Like other painters, such as the English landscape specialist William Turner, he has achieved success in his advanced age. If "this Wednesday" his plan is to finish "a very colorful painting" in his studio, Katz's desired future would be "a major retrospective of my work in New York." It will come.
