Alex Katz at the Guggenheim

2022 was a great year for art in New York, and probably the number one highlight for me was the Alex Katz retrospective at the Guggenheim (which runs through February 20th so you [and I!] can still go see it [or go back!]). I had become particularly aware of Katz within the last, hmm, 5 years? And by great coincidence I read a whole Katz monograph late last summer (this is an activity I began in 2022: checking out art books about artists that I like and not just looking at the pictures BUT also reading all the words…turns out you can learn a lot!) so I felt really ready and enthused when I heard he was getting a gigantic Guggenheim show. I was able to get tickets opening weekend and met up with Patricia and Derek and was able to share everything I remembered about Katz with them during our visit.

What did I remember? Katz is from Queens, or Brooklyn, and went to Cooper Union. He was a peer to all the abstract expressionists and pop artists but he decided to focus on “realistic” work. He likes his paintings to catch a moment, be fixable in time. His paintings are meant to capture a very quick instant in time, like a camera set to a fast shutter speed. He often paints very quickly. He’s 95…or older? He met his wife Ada at a party in the 50’s, married her a few months later. She has been one of his primary subjects through the years, painting so many portraits of her. They’re both still alive! Katz thinks he is the best artist of his generation and it’s nice when an artist finally believes in themselves instead of being so doubtful or self-effacing.

Ok, pictures from the First Visit, let’s go!

There’s this big, beautiful Ada portrait at the base of the Guggenheim rotunda before you start a chronological journey through his works

It’s bits of paper!

Sometimes Katz paints these metal cutouts of people

That office building painting there on the left drives me wild

The Guggenheim is an extremely good setting for this show. The people watching is A++

Ada with Kat’s worried son

Between you and me, this guy was making a real big show of making this sketch.

A couple works about Ada’s nose

That’s Katz’s worried son on the left

Towards the top, Katz’s later works start getting bigger and bigger

On Visit Two I came with Liz. It was October 29th. Halloween was creeping across New York and into its museums, too. I brought my 90mm lens to get some closer, different-looking pictures of the Katz stuff.

This Ada on Red is a major work of Katz’s and I think I didn’t even post a picture of it from the first visit.

An Aside: You can buy some cool mobiles in the Guggenheim gift shop

Visit Three : Now here’s a twist…a major Nick Cave show (which Liz and I had seen in Chicago) opened at the Guggenheim in some of its other galleries. So here’s photos from visit three, none of which are of the Katz works but the Katz works were also enjoyed. Of note: I made visit three with Victoria five days before engaging myself to Liz and was trying very hard not to reveal anything of the plans I had.

A note: Cave is a Chicago artist that New York sure seems keen on appropriating, what with the new Cave tunnel between the Times Square Shuttle stop and 6th Avenue subways and his performances at Grand Central a while back. The show was bigger and better in Chicago but, if you hadn’t seen it, this New York one would seem pretty big and good itself.

Also: The Guggenheim show has given the city a touch of Katz fever and I’ve been to two galleries holding Katz exhibitions. One of just a few pictures at a small gallery on the UES and then a fairly large show at the Marlborough gallery in Chelsea. Time to buy a Katz! Or better yet, sell one!

(These two above were from the small show, the rest are from the Marlborough)