Alex Katz: Give Me Tomorrow
6 October 2012 – 13 January 2013
Alex Katz on Painting:
Masterpieces from Tate
6 October 2012 – 20 January 2013
Free admission
Eleuthera, 1984, Oil on Canvas, 3050 x 6705mm © Alex Katz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
A free resource for teachers and group
leaders to use alongside the exhibitions
Introduction to the Exhibitions:
Alex Katz is one of the most important and prolific living American painters. He
had his first solo show in 1954 and has since then carved out a distinct style,
often going against the ‘fashion’ of the time, for example eschewing Abstract
Expressionism at its height. He has been influential not only on visual art, but
also fashion, style, music and theatre throughout his career. He is now 85, and
his latest exhibition, Give Me Tomorrow, at Turner Contemporary explores themes
including family portraits, friends and social relationships, style and the
American Dream, flowers, seascapes and beach life.
The majority of the exhibition is made up of paintings – usually on a very large
scale. Katz's process involves making small studies from life, which he scales up
using the traditional charcoal cartoon and pinhole 'pouncing' method, then paints
the final large scale work in one go, working ‘wet on wet,’ quickly painting without
waiting for previous layers of paint to dry before applying the next. We are also
exhibiting some of his collages, and a rare ‘cut out’ made from oil paint on
aluminium.
When he started making artworks in 1950s America, it was a time when many
artists were working in the Abstract Expressionist style. Alex Katz differed
greatly. He made work that was typically bold, flat and colourful with distinct
lines. His subject tended to be the cultural context of New York style, fashion
and glamour.
Katz has lived between New York and Maine, in New England, for much of his life.
He works in both places – over the course of his career his style and practice has
remained unmistakeable but has been through many changes. We are showing
early work from the 1950s and early 1960s, including family portraits and
landscapes, small works, often studies for larger-scale paintings, images of
landscapes, seascapes, flowers, family and friends that span the 1960s to 2000,
cut-out paper collages made with flat shapes and colour, large-scale paintings
depicting waves, light and boats, a large four-panel work, Eleuthera, which
invites comparisons between art, fashion, lifestyle and advertising, and recent
work in a graphic, colourful style, some shown for the first time this year,
including work very recognisable as homage to the French Impressionist painter
Monet (1840 – 1926).
Alex Katz, like JMW Turner, has many interests beyond visual art which inform his
practice. He is particularly passionate about poetry, jazz music, theatre and
dance. He has worked as a set and costume designer for, among other things,
Avant Garde dance productions. From an early age he was encouraged to
consider what was ‘stylish’ – something that has stayed with him throughout the
rest of his life and career. This pre-occupation with style comes through strongly
in Katz’s work and is identifiable in much of the exhibition.
In the West Gallery you will find works that Alex Katz has selected from the Tate
collection to accompany the exhibition of his works. He was invited to take a
closer look at the collection and choose a group of works or artists that have been
important to him over the years. There is no particular theme to the works; Alex
Katz says, ‘I mostly chose work that I wanted to look at. It wasn’t a question of
selecting the best work or the best painting by that artist.’
This is a fantastic chance to see an artist’s work alongside work by the artists
who have inspired him. It is a great opportunity to consider how we learn from
each other, what we borrow and copy from others, and how we adapt and reflect
on our work in comparison to our peers and those we learn from.
We suggest that you use open questions in the exhibition to begin to discuss
these themes, there are examples of generic questions below and more detailed
activities towards the end of the resource. Questions and activities are in purple:
- What does this artwork remind you of?
- What is your first reaction to this artwork?
- How does it make you feel?
- Is it hot or cold?
- Is it happy or sad?
- What was the artist thinking about when making it?
- How does the shape of the work make you feel?
- How else could you look at this artwork?
Your visit:
‘The staff who ran the workshops and conducted the gallery session were expert
and incredibly professional. The range and pace of activities was totally
appropriate for the age and needs of the learners who greatly enjoyed and
benefitted from the day.’
Stephen Dove, Deputy Head, The North School, Ashford.
We Are Curious is Turner Contemporary’s Learning programme. We aim to
embrace students’ curiosity about contemporary art, and encourage it to grow
into confident and critical discussion of artists and their work. We offer a range
of activities for schools and community groups to book, from ‘hands-on
philosophy’ tours with our trained team, discussion sessions using our handling
collections, to practical sessions which explore the practice of exhibiting artists.
You are also welcome to lead your own visit, using our free resources for support.
We ask all groups to make a booking with us if they are intending to visit. To do
so, please email [email protected] and we’ll aim to get back to you
within three days. Turner Contemporary is open Tuesday – Sunday 10.00 – 18.00
and is closed on Mondays except Bank Holidays.
Give Me Tomorrow Key Works:
North Gallery
Ada, 1959, Oil on Masonite, 610 x 610mm
© Alex Katz/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Katz made his first painting of Ada in 1957 and they married the following year.
For the next six decades she became an ever-evolving motif in his work.
Sometimes she is shown in intimate, naturalistic settings: their home, a beach,
with friends. At others she becomes a kind of icon, standing for a more universal
idea of beauty or femininity.
This early work shows the beginnings of Katz’s use of bold blocks of colour – have
a look at the ‘lines’ in the work. Are they defined? Where do they begin and end?
Is Ada central in the work? Is she symmetrical? Is this important? How does it
change the way you feel about the work?
Islesboro Ferry Slip, 1976, Oil on Linen, 1980 x 2134mm © Alex Katz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Katz’s compositions often depict his family and friends in carefully staged
groupings and poses. Islesboro Ferry Slip shows his son, Vincent, walking down a
jetty with a friend. It is easy to date this picture: Katz’s attention to clothing and
fashion give it a powerful sense of time and place. Islesboro is a Katz family
holiday spot, an island close to Katz’s home in Maine where he spends his
summers. This depiction of leisure time, time spent relaxing on holiday and
apparently at ease, recurs in Katz’s paintings. He has made many pieces of work
showing the seaside, and beach scenes, making his work particularly resonant
here in Margate – famous as a seaside leisure resort.
Eleuthera, 1984, Oil on Canvas, 3050 x 6705mm © Alex Katz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Eleuthera is one of the largest works Katz has made and takes its title from an
island in the Bahamas where Katz holidayed in the 1980s. Like many of Katz’s
large group portraits, the complex composition of this painting is carefully
planned in advance – Katz made several sketches of the composition of
individual panels before painting the finished work rapidly, in one concentrated
session. In the early 1980s Katz brought influences from high fashion into his
work – indeed Eleuthera has the look of a fashion shoot. In fact, the female
bathers depicted are Katz’s family and friends. In the 1970s, Katz had made a
huge work which looked very much like an advertising campaign in Times Square
(a large, famous landmark in New York – like Piccadilly Circus in London.) Katz
admits that moving from making huge advertising billboards to working with high
fashion was not easy, ‘I found it challenging to transform the rawness of
advertising into a fine art object…Eleuthera was four panels, each with two
women in Kamali bathing suits.’1
1 Alex Katz, Invented Symbols, Cantz Verlag, Germany, 1997, p86
Black Hat (Bettina), 2010, Oil on Linen, 1524 x 2134mm © Alex Katz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Image courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris – Salzburg
Black Hat (Bettina) continues Katz’s lifelong interest in ‘faces’, painted big and
up close. Katz has said, ‘the heads got bigger and bigger, and I had to make
sketches for them. I couldn’t paint them directly.’2 It was at the end of the 1960s
that Katz first used the traditional technique of ‘pouncing’ to transfer his
sketches onto canvas. Despite her glamorous look, Bettina retains an
awkwardness found in Katz’s most compelling works, giving them an unsettling
edge, a degree of resistance to being easily assimilated or categorised. Katz
describes himself as very accurate on three things: ‘light, clothes and people’.
This monumental portrait sums up these on-going commitments. It is part of a
series of paintings showing male and female models posed in a black floppy hat
against a vibrant yellow background.
Looking at Ada, Islesboro Ferry Slip, Eleuthera and Bettina – who, or what, do you
think makes a good muse, or model? Should it be someone you know? Someone
you love? Yourself?
Why not explore other artists who have made many works using a muse? Do they
all have something in common?
2 Op Cit, p81
Coleman Pond, 1975, Cut Out, Oil Paint on Aluminium, 2410 x 4110mm Collection of the artist
Alex Katz made his first cut out in 1959. Literally cut out, painted silhouettes in
wood or aluminium, these freestanding portraits sit somewhere between painting
and sculpture whilst also emphasising the flatness of Katz’s paintings on canvas.
This rarely exhibited three-part cut-out of canoeing figures is based on an earlier
series of paintings which show the same figures canoeing towards and away from
the viewer. Coleman Pond of the title is in Linconville, Maine, where Katz has had
a holiday home since the 1950s.
South Gallery
Homage to Monet 9, 2009, Oil on Linen, 3048 x 2438mm © Alex Katz/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
This painting revisits Claude Monet’s classic motif of water lilies (a recurring
motif in his work, mostly painted between 1899 and the early 1900s when Monet
had a lily pond in his garden at Giverny, France), but in Katz’s distinctive visual
language. Katz has spoken and written at length about French painting, including
Monet. Here he refers explicitly to Impressionism and its on-going influence, but
with notable differences; he remarks in an Impressionist painting the light is
‘slower, more diffuse’; in Katz’s painting it is sharp, strong, graphic and quick,
like a flashbulb.
Seagull, 2010, Oil on Linen, 2134 x 1524mm © Alex Katz/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
This painting gives an idea of the massive scale on which Katz makes some of his
work. It is particularly pertinent to Margate: Is a seagull a beautiful bird? Does
the painting change the way you think about them?
Irene Willet Gallery (Corridor)
Penobscot, 1999, Oil Paint on Board, 230 x 302mm © Alex Katz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay
Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
Alex Katz started to paint en plein air (in the open air) while he was at a summer
school in rural Maine aged 19. It had a profound effect on him – he commented
on the speed at which it was necessary to paint because of changing light and
weather conditions. He has continued to paint en plein air for the rest of his
career – particularly in Maine. Penobscot is a town on the coast of Maine, where
Katz still regularly holidays. It is one of his later paintings, and contrasts to his
beach scenes with people in them, showing more plentiful and varied markings
than his ‘flatter’ works.
If the Clore Learning Studio is free, go in and have a look at the view from the
window. Alternatively stand in the Sunley Gallery and look at the view through
the large window. How does it compare with Penobscot?
There is a photograph of Alex Katz painting en plein air on the beach included in
the timeline on the Balcony Gallery.
Alex Katz on Painting: Masterpieces from Tate
In this selection shown in the West Gallery Katz includes several nineteenth and
twentieth-century paintings, as well as work by recent European contemporaries.
For the exhibition at Turner Contemporary he has also selected a seascape by
JMW Turner. Over the years, Katz has consistently looked to European traditions
for inspiration as well as responding to his American peers.
‘I’ve always liked the work of both Walter Sickert and William Nicholson. They’re
highly civilised, but very good provincial painters. I’ve also got two paintings by
Stubbs in there, I admire his sense of scale – and of course he was great at
painting horses ...’
Key Works:
Henri Rousseau, 1844-1910, Bouquet of Flowers c.1909-10, Oil on Canvas, 610 x
495mm. Tate, Bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop 1933
Given Katz’s on-going series of flower paintings, it is not surprising that he has
chosen a classic vase of flowers by one of his favourite artists: Henri Rousseau.
When he was young, a Rousseau book was the only art book he had. Katz says
that Rousseau is like a, ‘French classicist in space…[his] images have the
flatness and directness of a photograph, but they also go through his
unconscious.’3
Luc Tuymans, born 1958, Illegitimate III, 1997, Oil on Canvas 1610 x 1368 x 23 mm Tate. Presented by the Patrons of New Art through the Tate Gallery Foundation1998
You can search for an image of this work on the internet – but copyright
restrictions prevent us from publishing it here or providing a reliable link.
Luc Tuymans bases much of his work on photographs and film stills, tending to
work in muted pastels, cool greys and plaster whites. He understands that the
work he is making is a representation of something, and that a representation
can only ever be partial and subjective. As a result he sets out to make his work
figurative rather than clear cut – many of his images appear blurred or reduced
as he re-photographs them until much of the original detail is lost. This loss of
details can also be seen in the apparent deterioration of the painted surface, a
result of the cheap materials and distressed finishes Tuymans uses. He says of
his work, ‘[it] is about the loss of meaning, but also about the failure of
representation’. Tuymans is uncomfortable about explaining his work too much,
especially in the gallery space for visitors. In an interview for the Art Newspaper
he talks about this reluctance:
The Art Newspaper: Much has been made of the need to “decode”
your work with viewers looking to your titles for guidance. Do you
place too much responsibility on the spectator to unravel your
images?
Luc Tuymans: First, you should not underestimate the public and try
to be overly didactic which is always the problem with institutions,
they force you to produce text after text. For my Tate Modern show
[2004], the education department wanted bigger captions but I wanted
to make them less visible. There were already explanations outside
each gallery but each picture also required texts. We fought over it.4
How does your group feel about Tuymans’ attitude above? Do they agree?
3 Op cit, pp119-120
4 http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Why-paintings-succeed-where-words-fail/19286
20.08.2012
Francis Picabia, 1879 – 1953, The Handsome Pork-Butcher /Le Beau Charcutier,
c1924-6, Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas Tate. Accepted by HM Government in lieu of tax and allocated to the Tate Gallery 1996
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/picabia-the-handsome-pork-butcher-
t07108
This complex picture has a long and convoluted history. It was started by Picabia
in the early 1920s (the canvas is dated 1921) and it began its life as a painting of
a:
‘pink-faced man, wearing a white shirt and a black suit. It
was painted in a deliberately simple, naive style, using
household, rather than oil, paint, and incorporated various
manufactured materials: string and short plastic combs
were used in the man's hair, darning needles for the
eyebrows, toothpicks for the moustache and goatee beard,
curtain rings for the eyes and mouth, measuring tape for
the nose, and an array of pen-nibs in the area of the
figure's bow-tie.’5
At some point later – probably years – Picabia revisited the work and made
substantial changes. Many of the original elements are now lost – he removed
the collaged objects leaving only the measuring tape. He painted over various
lines of the painting in black, and added more, large combs to make the man’s
hair. The largest and most striking addition was that of a woman’s head, face and
hands, complete with large blue eyes and full red lips.
A photograph of Picabia's studio, taken in 1935 shows the work in its current
state, so we know the reworking must have been completed by then. It had
acquired its present title by March 1949 when it was exhibited at the Galerie
René Drouin, Paris.
5 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/picabia-the-handsome-pork-butcher-t07108 29.08.2012
JMW Turner, 1775-1851, Seascape with Buoy, c1840, Oil on Canvas, 914 x
1219mm Tate, Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
JMW Turner painted the coast, the sea and marine subjects throughout his life.
During the 1830s and 40s, when this work was painted, he was a regular visitor to
Margate and the Kent coast. He lived in London but would travel here on a steam
boat to stay with Mrs Booth, a landlady who owned a guesthouse on the site
where the gallery now stands. Turner was fascinated by the light and sea views
in Thanet, once remarking that the, ‘skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all
Europe.’ Seascape with Buoy captures the idea of changing light and the
turbulent waters of the coast. The buoy in the foreground suggests that the scene
was intended to emphasise the hazards of shipping.
Have look out of the window towards the sea. What are the conditions like today?
How does the sea, and the sky, change over time? How would you describe the
colours you can see? Does your friend describe them in the same way? How do
they compare to the colours that Turner has used in his painting? Look back at
Penobscot – what are the similarities and differences between Penobscot, this
Turner painting, and the view out to sea?
Alex Katz: influences and other work:
Throughout his life Alex Katz has had a strong interest in style. This, in part, has
informed the development of an interest in many other cultural forms. These
have grown and evolved, sometimes personally and sometimes professionally:
Jazz:
Alex Katz started listening to music more intently when he started at Cooper
Union – the art school he attended from the age of 19-22. He says, ‘when I
started Cooper, I found out that I wasn’t that weird. There were kids there much
weirder than I.’6 He and his friends listened to ‘Dixieland’ and ‘bebop’ in
particular. Once he finished Cooper Union, he became interested in the ‘jazz that
was being played around town.’7 As a result of this, Katz particularly got into
Stan Getz, saying, ‘he was the first musician I really related to.’8 Later, Katz
became interested in Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Machito. By the late 1950s,
Katz was not as interested in new and emerging jazz artists but his love of those
that he had discovered in his youth remained a strong theme for the rest of his
career.
Film of Stan Getz (3:45) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCdeJwGs818
Miles Davis & the Quintet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_whk6m67VE
Sonny Rollins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgZVT2m0ziY
Machito & his Afro-Cubans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlKtZ9568QE
Theatre and Dance:
Through his friendship with Edwin Denby (one of the most influential American
dance critics of the 20th Century, as well as being a poet and novelist himself),
Katz became very interested in modern dance and poetry. However he began to
make sets for dance productions quite by accident. He says, ‘I never thought
about doing stage or costume designs, but in 1960 Paul Taylor* had a difference
of opinion with Rauschenberg** and needed a set in two weeks.’9 Katz played
with the way stages were traditionally lit – requesting a flat, white light rather
than spots, and painted the floor bright colours. He put the dancers in bright
leotards and skirts, challenging the traditions of dance and bringing in much
more contemporary ideas to mirror the style of the productions. Throughout the
1960s and 70s Katz designed sets and costumes for various performances, more
and more taking inspiration from his cut-outs and dressing sets with them. He
also painted pictures of dancers wearing his costumes, for example Private
Domain, 1969, in which the dancers wear shiny, brightly coloured swimwear.
http://www.artnet.de/magazine/art-38-basel/images/4/
6 Op Cit, p35
7 Ibid, p53
8 Ibid, p53
9 Ibid, p 97
*Paul Taylor (b. 1930) is a friend of Alex Katz – he has been one of the foremost choreographers in
America since the 1950s and is famous for being bold, out-there and tackling difficult or
unpopular subjects in his dances.
**Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) was a contemporary of Alex Katz – an artist who practised
painting and sculpture but also photography, printmaking, papermaking, and set and costume
design.
Poetry:
In the late 1950s Katz began to read a lot of poetry, including Kenneth Koch,
James Schuyler (there is a painting of James Schuyler in the North Gallery) and
John Ashbery, but in particular, Frank O’Hara.
Katz says, ‘Frank O’Hara is my hero. His optimism about being alive is stronger
than any other poet’s I can think of. He makes the time period he lives in vivid, as
well as the many other time periods to which he refers. I think he extended
himself further out emotionally than his friends. I would love to be able to make
an art with these qualities.’10
O’Hara died aged 40 after a freak accident – yet Katz strongly felt that his work
celebrated being alive like no other poet. There is an example of his work below,
he is famous for his conversational style, ‘I do this, I do that’ poetry:
SONG [1960]
I am stuck in traffic in a taxicab
which is typical
and not just of modern life
mud clambers up the trellis of my nerves
must lovers of Eros end up with Venus
muss es sein? es muss nicht sein, I tell you
how I hate disease, it's like worrying
that comes true
and it simply must not be able to happen
in a world where you are possible
my love
nothing can go wrong for us, tell me
http://www.frankohara.org/
You can see a recording of Frank O’Hara reading one of his poems here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDLwivcpFe8
10
Ibid, p147
Suggested discussion questions and activities:
Alex Katz: Give Me Tomorrow, discussion questions:
- Who are the people in the paintings? Are they real or models?
- What do the landscapes remind you of?
- Find a character in a painting that you are drawn to. What is their secret?
- Is the title of the painting important? Why?
- How does the scale (size) of the paintings make you feel?
- What differences can you notice between the brush strokes in the works
from different points in Alex Katz’s life?
- How do you think Alex Katz makes his collages and cut-outs? How do they
feel different to his paintings?
- Find a painting that makes you feel like you are ‘in’ the landscape. How
does Alex Katz make you feel that way?
Suggested activities:
- In the North Gallery – how many paintings of Ada can you see in this room?
Why do you think Alex Katz chose to paint her again and again?
- Find Ada and Edwin on the Beach or Round Hill and arrange each other as
the participants in the scene. Take it in turns to say out loud what each
person in the scene is thinking. As an extension you could build an on-
going narrative – what will happen next?
How easy is it to arrange a ‘natural’ family grouping? What do the poses
mean? How does it change the scene if the viewer sees it from a different
angle, e.g. walks around the ‘back’ of the group?
- Using Frank O’Hara’s poem as an example, try writing some simple ‘I do
this, I do that’ poems while in the gallery. Keep the sentences short, as
well as the poem itself. You could start it off:
In the gallery
with you
surrounded by paintings
- In the South Gallery – Find a painting with no ‘edges’ or horizon line.
Where would the ‘edge’ and the horizon line be if you were to paint them
in?
- Think of a place you have been to often. Imagine the landscape there and
the horizon line. What can you see? How would you describe the colours,
textures, smells and sounds? Perhaps you could write down some key
words to use later in a piece of writing.
Alex Katz on Painting: Masterpieces from Tate suggested discussion questions:
- What links and connections can you find between the Tate Collection
works?
- What links and connections can you find between the Tate Collection
works and the works of Alex Katz?
- Find the works that were made at the same time that Alex Katz was making
work (from about 1950). What similarities and differences are there
between these works? What changes over time can you notice?
- How many different styles of work can you see in the Tate Collection?
Which style do you prefer? Why?
Suggested activities:
- Find The Handsome Pork Butcher – Le Beau Charcutier. Francis Picabia
layered this painting by drawing a new, very different image over his
original. On a piece of paper, use a pencil to draw a quick self-portrait
using your dominant hand. (You may want to give a short time limit, e.g 30
seconds). Find a partner, swap pieces of paper, swap hands, and draw
yourself over the top of your partner’s portrait. Discuss the final image
with your partner. How does it change the way you see your drawing? How
does it change the way you see yourself?
- Find A Grey Hunter with a Groom and a Greyhound at Creswell Crags. This
is said to be a ‘conversation piece’ between the two animals. What is their
conversation? Try acting it out with a partner. Does it make a difference
which ‘character’ you are?
- Find Lucy. Read the wall text for her. The idea for this painting came from
an earlier painting, which was itself based on a story. Can you build a back
story for any of the other characters in the gallery? What would they be the
Patron Saint of?
Extended Activity:
As well as Coleman Pond, exhibited here, Alex Katz has made many cut-outs
throughout his career. It began by accident, he had painted a subject that he
liked but he disliked the background, so not wanting to ditch the whole painting
he simply cut out the subject and discarded the background – leaving it to stand
free. He then developed the idea and began making intentional cut-outs, often
from aluminium. He playfully tends to create a ‘front’ and a ‘back’ of each work –
a different view for each side.
Over the summer, some of our work experience students worked with an artist
and tried creating their own cut-outs, inspired by Alex Katz. They ended up
taking them around Margate and photographing them to create their own, unique
portraits. Why not try this yourself? Below is some more information about what
they did:
The group began by drawing quick, simple line portraits of themselves and each
other. They answered questions about themselves while others drew them, some
were silly like, ‘what’s your favourite jam?’ and some more serious like, ‘what’s
the worst thing you could overhear being said about you?’ in order to get more of
an insight into their character:
They then progressed onto drawing themselves again, and other members of their
families – with the idea of making a cut-out in mind. They made drawings of front
and back, cut them out and coloured them with comic marker pens. They then
took them around Margate for adventures and recorded the results:
You can recreate this activity using markers or paint, and by mounting drawings
and paintings onto strong cardboard. Why not share your own cut-out pictures on
our Facebook page? Facebook.com/turnercontemporary
Alex Katz Biography/Timeline:
1927 Born July 24 in Brooklyn, New York.
1928 Moves to St. Albans, Queens, New York.
1946-49 Studies at The Cooper Union, New York.
1949-50 Studies at Skowhegan Summer School of Painting and Sculpture,
Skowhegan, Maine.
1954 First one-person show at Roko Gallery, New York.
1955 Makes first collages.
1968 Moves to present home and studio in New York.
1986 Alex Katz, a traveling retrospective exhibition organized by The
Whitney Museum of American Art.
1988 Alex Katz: A Print Retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
1995/1996 Four international exhibitions in Europe
1998 Alex Katz: Twenty-Five Years of Painting at The Saatchi Collection,
London, England, January 15 - April 12.
1999 – 2010 Series of international exhibitions in America and Europe
2010 Alex Katz Portraits at The National Portrait Gallery, London, May 13 -
September 21.
2011 Alex Katz at the Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany, January 20,
2011 - April 9, 2012.
Alex Katz: Naked Beauty at the Kestnergesellschaft Hanover,
November 25, 2011 - February 5, 2012.
2012 Alex Katz at Tate St. Ives, May 19, 2012 - September 23, 2012,
traveling to Turner Contemporary, Margate, October 6, 2012 -
January 13, 2013.
Bibliography:
Alex Katz, Invented Symbols, Cantz Verlag, Germany, 1997 – available
second hand on Amazon, currently out of print.
Carter Ratcliff, Robert Storr and Iwona Blazwick, Alex Katz, Phaidon,
London, 2005
Martin Clark, Sarah Martin, Alison Gingeras and Matthew Higgs, Alex Katz:
Give Me Tomorrow, Tate St Ives and Turner Contemporary, St Ives and
Margate, 2012
http://www.alexkatz.com/
Dates for your diary:
Inspiring Learning Education Evening, 10 October, 4.30-6pm
Join us at our special twilight event for educators and take a look at the exciting
new exhibitions, try out tasters of the learning programme, discover useful apps
for Apple technology and meet the learning team. Stay on for the preview of
Platform, our exciting new showcase of emerging Kent artists from local
Universities, 6-8pm.
INSET day for Primary Teachers: Art Inspires Literacy
Friday 19 October 2012, 10.30am-4pm, £80 including lunch and refreshments
The day includes storytelling sessions led by actor, writer and theatre maker Jane
Nash. Jane is Director of Narativ London, an organisation based in London and
New York which trains participants to listen and tell stories effectively. Their
clients include Disney and UNICEF. Ayisha de Lanerolle, Director of The
Conversation Agency will explore artworks using philosophical enquiry, an
approach that engenders attentive listening and equal conversation and that
brings all voices into play.
14 – 19 Writing Masterclass, 17 October, 10am-4pm, £10 per head, one member
of staff per ten students goes free. All materials included
How good are your students at:
- Generating ideas from nothing?
- Using speech imaginatively?
- Writing in different styles for different audiences?
- Using a variety of third and first person writing styles?
-
Work with professional writers to use artworks as stimuli for creative writing in
our inspirational gallery space. Whether poetry, lyrics or developing characters
this fun, intensive day will build on key skills for students aged 14 – 19.
Sixth Form Art Masterclass, 9 November, 10am-4pm, £10 per head, one member
of staff per ten students goes free. All materials included
Students and teachers will work with practising artists, try new practical skills
linked to the exhibition, explore the work of Alex Katz and artists from the Tate
Collection and learn together in a world class building. Try out bold portraiture
using oil paints, working with blocks of colour and Alex Katz’s transfer and
enlarging techniques. Your students will also have an in depth, guided tour of
both exhibitions.
To book, or for more information on any of the above: please call 01843 233 000 or
email [email protected]
Upcoming exhibitions:
Maria Nepomuceno
Tempo para Respirar (Breathing Time), 14 September 2012 - 17 March 2013
The second artist commission for our Sunley Gallery is an exuberant installation
which will fill this spectacular double-height space. Inspired by traditional South
American craft techniques, Nepomuceno weaves straw, strings and piles beads,
and sews brightly-coloured ropes into draping coils and flower-like forms. These
materials form a fantastical landscape, also populated by playful ceramic
shapes, shiny over-sized beads and found objects.
Visitors are invited to be a part of the artwork, whether it be sitting amongst the
work’s many colours and textures or relaxing in a hammock looking out to sea.
Carl Andre
Mass and Matter, 1 February 2013 - 6 May 2013
A selection of sculptures and typed word-poems from 1960s and 1970s by one of
the most influential sculptors of the twentieth century.
Rosa Barba
Subject to Constant Change, 1 February 2013 - 6 May 2013
An exhibition of new works by Rosa Barba, whose work takes a sculptural
approach to film, including a major new film installation using footage filmed in
Margate.
Organised in collaboration with Cornerhouse, Manchester.
Perspective drawings by JMW Turner, selected by Barba, will also be on show
from 1 February to 6 May.
The Learning Team at Turner Contemporary is:
Karen Eslea, Head of Learning
Keiko Higashi, Learning Officer
Beatrice Prosser-Snelling, Schools Officer
Navigators:
Zoe Bates, Dom Channing, Joan Hobson, Greg Lawrence, Nova Marshall, Lucy
Pettet, Mandy Quy-Verlander, Sue Rumsey, Jan Wheatley
Turner Contemporary is grateful to its funders and sponsor:
Turner Contemporary, Rendezvous, Margate, CT9 1HG
+44 (0) 1843 233 000
turnercontemporary.org
