Alex Katz. Quick Things Passing

Curated by Kiko Aebi, Katz Curator.

Alex Katz (b. 1927, Brooklyn) has described the subject of his life’s work as “quick things passing.” Over an eight-decade career, he has pursued this fleeting beauty by attending to the ever-changing qualities of everyday life. Across paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures, Katz records personal encounters with his two homes—New York City and Maine—from the interior glow of high-rise windows to the momentary flicker of light filtering through trees. With equal focus, he has turned his gaze toward the friends, family members, and artists who comprise his social world. His portraits register the fashions and habits of particular moments in time, yet their subjects, often caught mid-gesture, seem to exist in a perpetual present.

Immediacy is equally central to Katz’s process. He begins with small, rapid sketches—often in pen or pencil on paper, or in oil on board—of his direct observations, which he revises through successive studies. This method, refined through years of disciplined practice, enables him to complete his large-scale paintings in a single session, applying new layers of oil paint before earlier passages have fully dried to create the luminous, prismatic surfaces for which he is known.

The Paul J. Schupf Wing for the Work of Alex Katz presents a rotating selection from the Colby Museum’s collection of nearly nine hundred works by the artist. Shown in new combinations each year, the galleries explore and highlight the countless ideas and stories contained in this career-spanning body of work.

More information: Colby College Museum of Art