alex katz | naked beauty
alice springs | people
25 November 2011–5 February 2012

kestnergesellschaft

Goseriede 11
30159 Hanover, Germany

Until now, Alex Katz's nudes have never been gathered together in such a concentration and profusion within the framework of one exhibition. With his characteristically focused works replete with crisp lines and surfaces, the painter explores the relationship between the real and the painted figure, creating paintings of singular persons and situations that are universally symbolic at the same time. The city views of New York shown in tandem with the nudes are drawn from situations and forms of everyday life, which, alongside the direct encounter with the life model, represent the material for his paintings. By means of the juxtaposition of nude and landscape as two traditional genres, the kestnergesellschaft is initiating a discussion on the essence of Alex Katz's painterly enquiries: his respect for old subjects while rendering them modern, the translation of fleeting moments of perception in form and surface, the creation of perfect, cool planes of color using the traditional means of painting. When we look at Katz's works, we see pictures that fluctuate between subjectivity and universality, without ever reconciling the two.

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