“Painting Energy”: Alex Katz spotlights his favorite artists

When Alex Katz began painting more than 75 years ago, he ignored what was popular then, to pursue his passion: figurative art. “Most people didn’t like my work,” he said. “It was figurative, and everyone was abstract, and everything was pop art. But a lotta people didn’t like it.”

But he says he didn’t care that much what they thought: “If they liked it, swell. And if they didn’t like it, go to hell.”

Katz depicts recognizable figures and objects from the real world. Using unfussy backgrounds and large areas of color, he emphasizes shapes and outlines, and paints massive pieces, often with his wife, Ada, as his subject. “I did the figures on a flat ground,” he said. “I did the double portraits of Ada. I did the big heads before anyone. And that’s really aggressive. And the big compositions. No one had done anything like it.”

Katz grew up in Queens, New York, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine. He’s been honing his technique ever since.

In 1986, “Sunday Morning” documented his artistic process:

These days, the art world has caught up to Alex Katz’s talent. His paintings can sell for millions of dollars, and exhibitions around the world have highlighted his work, including a show in 2022 at New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

Now famed for his portraits, Katz is also highly-regarded for his landscapes, often inspired by the picturesque scenes near his summer studio in Maine. “It’s a long way from Queens,” he said, “but it is like Queens. It’s all kinda small!”

Katz says painting the outdoors heightened his creativity: “I thought I was connecting with outdoor painting, but actually I was connecting with myself,” he said. “The painting was no longer cerebral. It was coming from the inside.”

This summer, Katz turned 98, and after a lifetime painting, he’s focused on the work of other artists. He gifted a collection of more than a hundred paintings by emerging and established artists to Maine’s Portland Museum of Art.

“As the art world has moved in different ways and fashions, Alex has always stayed true to his self,” said museum director Mark Bessire. “I see his love of artists taking chance and his love of artists emanating that sense of energy that he likes in a painting. He doesn’t like a painting because it looks like his or it’s figurative. He likes it ’cause it’s got the energy, and it pops.”

The exhibit is called “Painting Energy.”

Asked to describe the sensation of looking at some of those paintings, Katz replied, “It’s just like a pow! You get it right through the air. It’s very quick. Sometimes you can get a whole show – as they open the elevator door, blink, and they shut it, you know what this painting’s about.”

One painting that gave Katz that “pow” was Katherine Bradford’s “Shadows.”

Bradford said that when she learned Katz had bought one of her paintings, “I just felt, ‘Oh, wow! Maybe I am a little good!’ And Alex Katz, he certainly is really good. Good eye, good person.”

Bradford didn’t start painting until her 30s. Now she’s 83, and her pieces typically sell for tens of thousands of dollars. “Alex Katz is a leader in contemporary art,” she said. “But in the state of Maine, he’s king. And we all look up to him. He decided to use what he had gained to give back to artists, to buy artists’ work.”

Asked why he wanted to collect other artists’ paintings, Katz said, “Well, I wanted to help other people who went through the same difficulty that I did, you know? I know every little help I got in that period from 25-35, I really appreciated.”

Like when a paint manufacturer who recognized Katz’s talent early on gave him art supplies as part of a deal: “He got five or six little paintings, and I had free paints,” said Katz. “But the big thing was someone believed there was something in me.”

Katz still works seven days a week, and is still taking risks. “Sometime, in about a week, I’ll do the first painting of a new series,” he said.

“And you seem excited about that?” I asked.

“Excited and frightened,” he laughed. “Yeah, I’m scared it really won’t work out.”

“So, after all that you’ve accomplished, you still worry?”

“Uh-huh. I want to go where I’m scared. And the new things might be better, they might be worse, but I have to do ’em.”

      
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Story produced by Robbyn McFadden. Editor: Lauren Barnello. 

      
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