The Burlington Magazine, David: Alex Katz's Development As An Artist

Artifact #1

Carrier, David. “Alex Katz. New York.” The Burlington Magazine, vol. 140, no. 1144, 1998, pp. 504–06.

Alex Katz had to develop into the person he’s become through his journey of art. This source solely speaks of Alex’s development as an artist and how that affected his work later on. Katz is a New York-born realist who came of age during the era of abstract expressionism. He started off with landscape paintings, adapting a “European” twist to his style. Over time, his paintings became more distinctively American, bigger, and blanker. Katz later began to attach a mental phenomenon to his paintings. He described it as “Looking around while caught in blank mental states, aware not of unhappy feelings, but of experiences which cannot be characterized as entirely positive - experiences which are not engaged with feeling, which do not contain memories, which are not concerned with emotion”(pg. 505).

Carrier’s inclusion of Katz’s past such as his childhood and origins is crucial to understand Katz’s viewpoint. The development of Katz’s work through the adaptation of other styles also plays into the understanding of it. Taking this into consideration and the mental phenomenon he connects with his paintings, you get a deeper feel for the painting. As if you are in it, living through Katz’s imagination.

Alex Katz. New York was helpful in understanding the kind of person Katz is and how affects his work. It provides many different examples of how his art changed and the differences in the feelings attached to each piece. His purpose and feelings were prevalent in a unique way, like blanker paintings and other more filled-in colorful pieces. This helps me feel more connected with his paintings, and develop an understanding of why he painted the way he did.

James, Merlin. The Burlington Magazine, vol. 150, no. 1264, 2008, pp.