The Comfortable World of Alex Katz: Art Ephemera from a 70-Year Career

The enthusiastic response to the Alex Katz retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum has encouraged Gallery 98 to feature here a sampling of art ephemera from the artist’s 70-year exhibition history. Katz has steadfastly followed his chosen creative direction by producing works that stand apart from major art movements, but which continue to appeal as attractive, uncomplicated renderings of a comfortable, contented life.

With an elegant wife (whom he has depicted over 1000 times!), a Soho loft, a summer studio in Maine, and friendship with a cultivated group of artists, poets and dancers, Katz’s world is almost completely devoid of the social issues, identity politics, and angst that have driven the art of many of his contemporaries. Even when Katz portrays a well-known renegade like poet Rene Ricard, the result is pleasing. This may seem out-of-step with reality, but if the response to the Guggenheim retrospective is any indication, it may be what some people need during these tumultuous times.

Gallery Announcement Cards, 1970–1993