ALEX KATZ, Brisk Day II, 1990, 92 x 74 cm Courtesy Christine König Galerie, Wien

Christine König Galerie Schleifmühlgasse 1a 1040 Vienna Austria (city map) Send E-mail tel +43-(0)1-585 74 74 www.christinekoeniggalerie.com

By 1965, anyone in the New York art community was looking at prints. They were a challenge, a new field in which artists could push to overcome limitations within a traditionally rigid and hierarchial medium. It was at this juncture that Alex Katz, with typical deliberation and thoroughness, brought his own unique attitude to the printmaking arena. He has created icons of contemporary American printmaking. Looking beyond such high points to his career, a progression of mastery from discipline to discipline can be traced, usually with unconventional ideas about what each medium should produce. He does not arrive at a printed image through spontaneous experimentation with the particular medium.
When he enters a printmaking situation, he has already determined what he wants and will bend the medium to his purposes. Unlike painters who see printmaking as a separate activity, Katz always views it in the context of his entire corpus of work: Prints are supposed to be, with my work, the final synthesis of a painting.
(Quotations by Barry Walker: Alex Katz, A Print Retrospective. The Brooklyn Museum, 1987)