Alex Katz captures ‘New Yorkers' daily life in a cool way’ in Seoul’s Lotte Museum of Art
Lmoa presents ‘Alex Katz: Models & Dancers’ exhibition of about 70 works by the 90-year-old contemporary master of portraiture who pained big pictures
American artist Alex Katz is known for his distinctive style of portraits featuring sophisticated yet daring women of all ages. The Lotte Museum of Art (Lmoa) in southern Seoul presents the first solo exhibition of the 90-year-old artist, who stylises American culture and society such as fashion, beauty and landscape, in Korea.
Titled “Alex Katz: Models & Dancers”, the exhibition brings about 70 pieces from Katz's oeuvre, ranging from drawings and paintings to sculptures.
Katz is a contemporary master of portraiture and is influenced by the abstract expressionism of the 1950s, but he pursued something more powerful.
"Those [Franz] Kline and [Willem] de Kooning had so much big energy; I wanted to make something that knocked them off the wall. They set the standard. It wasn't the style I wanted to follow, but I wanted to paint up to their standards. So I took a figurative work and I said, ‘Well, I want a figurative painting on the scale of the Abstract Expressionists,’ you know, on a big scale," Katz is quoted saying.
Indeed, Katz's signature portraits are much larger than the conventional scale and create an impact with the flatness of colour and their clean lines.
For the Lmoa exhibition, Katz first reveals his latest series, combining modern fashion and art. The “CK” series and “Coca-Cola Girl” series are examples of how Katz uses fashion elements to add contemporariness into his works.
Fashion is of the moment, and art is supposed to be forever. Using fashion was a way to get to the present tense, because fashion exists in the present tense
"Fashion is of the moment, and art is supposed to be forever. Using fashion was a way to get to the present tense, because fashion exists in the present tense," Katz says.
The "Coca-Cola Girl" series features a blonde woman wearing white dance wear on a red background. The move of the women on canvas is inspired by the white-and-red rhythmical design of the brand's logo.