Alex Katz. Collaborations with Poets

The first exhibition to bring together the full range of materials that display Katz’s extensive collaborations with poets of the New York School was presented at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago in 2023, organized with guidance from Alex Katz, Vincent Katz, and GRAY. This time an expanded presentation includes paintings and cutouts new to this venue. It offers an intimate look at Alex Katz’s longtime collaborative engagement with poets, and spans work created over the past 60 years, including prints, portfolios, special-edition books, paintings, and unique cutouts, all which center on Katz’s communion and intersection with poets throughout his career.

One of the most recognized and widely exhibited artists of his generation, Alex Katz came of age between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. The artist began exhibiting his work in 1954, and since that time has established himself as a preeminent painter of modern life whose distinctive portraits and lyrical landscapes bear a flattened surface and consistent economy of line. As Katz entered the art world in the 1950s, a new style of American poetry emerged, and the painter found natural affinities to the poets in their shared interest in expressing contemporary living. Katz’s developed a deep interest in poetry, an art form whose methodologies and tactics he considered “more stimulating than painting.”

More information: The Butler Institute of American Art