29/2/2008
Alex Katz
Jablonka, Berlin
Marine
The Jablonka Galerie is pleased to present 10 new paintings by Alex Katz in this exhibition.
These large paintings were all created in Maine, the summer residence of the 81 year-old
American painter. In his landscapes, Alex Katz has always emphasized the nuances in
representing a specific light on a specific time of day or night. In this regard, they are linked
to the tradition of French Impressionist painting. Katz focuses on the subject of time in
painting in a typical American way – executed on a large scale, his paintings are
demonstrations of visual as well as athletic virtuosity. In his work, Katz unites the ephemeral
and the sublime, rendering the moment timeless.
For the exhibition, Katz wrote a short statement on his painting 10 AM, August from 2007:
What we see is determined by our culture, and most of what is
accepted is past tense. When I began painting, what was supposed to
be realistic in painting looked like old paintings, including the
paintings I was doing. My job was to free myself to be able to see
in the present tense.
Several years later, while visiting the Peter Cooper Estate, I
encountered a room with wall-to-wall sea scenes, marines. The idea
of living in a large marine was the inspiration for my marine
paintings. 50 years after visiting the Cooper Estate, I am on a
beach making perceptual studies at 9:30 AM and 4:30 PM. When I was
in the navy, I would wash the decks at 6 AM, amazed at the constantly
changing colors of the ocean.
The large painting 10 AM, August started on a humid
summer morning that would most likely burn off and become blue
later. For 20 minutes, I painted what was in front of me. I
enlarged the image to five by seven feet and realized that it would
be more interesting as an environmental painting ten feet square. I
then made a cartoon that size and refined the proportions.
Painting the oil-on-linen painting is not too different from
painting the original, small, oil-on-board studies (I usually do
several of these). The colors are pre-mixed, the brushes are laid
out. The cartoon image is transferred to the primed linen. All I
have to do is pay attention to the paint and settle for what the
painting is.
Alex Katz, February 13, 2008
A catalogue with poems by Max Blagg has been published in conjunction with the exhibition.
Image: Marine 10 am 2, 2007. Oil on linen 152.4 x 182.8 cm (60 x 72 in.)
Jablonka Galerie
Kochstrasse 60 D-10969 Berlin