January 7

Alex Katz

1993

A large aquatint print in which Alex Katz isolates a poised woman—her purple beret and flat, luminous features—against a misty stand of bare trees to capture the still, cinematic instant of a modern portrait.

What strikes you first is the sharp contrast between the poster‑flat face and vivid lavender beret pushed forward from a monochrome, calligraphic tangle of tree trunks that recede like fog, giving the scene a cool, cinematic clarity.

By translating his signature flattened, camera‑like portraits into aquatint, Katz bridged painting and printmaking and helped define a late‑20th‑century language of pared‑down, large‑scale portraiture that emphasizes surface, scale, and immediacy.

Palette

Art Terms

Aquatint Print Portrait Figurative Contemporary art Figure/ground relationship

Exhibitions

American Prints from the International Program

1971

American Drawings and Watercolors: A Selection from the Collection

1969

American Prints, 1960–1985

1987

American Prints: 1900–1960; Recent Acquisitions: Illustrated Books

1985