ALEX KATZ
"PAINTINGS FROM THE 50'S - 80'S"

December 10, 2009 - January 30, 2010

.........Adam Baumgold Gallery presents the exhibition"Alex Katz, Paintings from the 50's - 80's," from December 10 - January 30, 2010. Included in the exhibition of twenty paintings are major works that were exhibited in Alex Katz's retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1986, as well as in the exhibition "Alex Katz: Small Paintings" at the Addison Gallery of American Art, The Whitney Museum and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001-2002, and the exhibition "Alex Katz Paints Ada" at the Jewish Museum in New York in 2006.

.........Featured in the exhibition is the iconic painting "Swimmer # 3," 1973, one of the artist's most recognizable images. Dramatically cropped and enlarged, the swimmer's massive head emerges from primary blue water. Simplifying his face, mouth and a splash of water into blocks of solid color, Katz evokes the poetry of a Japanese woodcut. Another major painting, "Bather," 1959, features Katz's enigmatic, constant muse, his wife Ada, who stands front and center in a continuous field of water and sky. This succinct painting is clearly an ode to the sparse, mesmerizing collages of the artist's early work.

.........Katz often arrives at his larger paintings through a series of smaller, painterly studies. Among the small scale paintings in this exhibition is "Walk," 1970, an image of the artist's young son Vincent paused along a boardwalk, the larger version of which is in the Carnegie Museum of Art. "Man (Vincent) in Canoe," 1974, is another prime example of a robust study for a larger painting. As Adam D. Weinberg states in his essay for "Alex Katz: Small Paintings":

........."While his big paintings are akin to a public performance "without a net," the small paintings are rehearsals that reveal not only how he works but more importantly why he is interested in a particular subject. Moreover, the small post-1962 paintings not only have utility as rehearsals for larger works but integrity as complete, satisfying, and beautiful objects in their own right."

.........In his early masterwork "Ada in a Pillbox Hat," 1961, which was exhibited at the Whitney and Jewish Museums, Katz transforms Ada into Jackie Kennedy, with stirring effect. In his no nonsense "Self Portrait (Study)" from 1982, which was also included in the Whitney's "Katz: Small Paintings" exhibition, Katz paints himself, a neatly dressed artist, head on, without artifice, props or irony. The larger version of this self portrait is reproduced on cover of the catalog raisonne of Alex Katz prints.

.........Included in the exhibition, the paintings of "Ada Behind Screen Door," 1985, as well as the evanescent "Impala (Study)," 1968, reveal Katz to be an audacious colorist whose bold palettes fuse tight and loose structures within his compositions. Alex Katz has been a monumental force in American and International art for over 50 years.

.........The gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11:00-5:30 P.M. The gallery will be closed from December 24, 2009 - January 4, 2010. A preview of the exhibition can be seen at www.adambaumgoldgallery.com.

.........For additional information, please contact Adam Baumgold at (212) 861-7338.