Landmark Exhibition of Works by Alex Katz to Open at The Butler

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – “Alex Katz: Collaborations with Poets” will open Sunday, Sept. 15, at The Butler Institute of American Art and run through Nov. 17.

The exhibition is the first to bring together the full range of materials that display Katz’s extensive collaborations with poets of the New York School.

First exhibited at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago in 2023, “Alex Katz: Collaborations with Poets” will be expanded for The Butler exhibition.

It offers an intimate look at the Brooklyn-based Katz’s longtime collaborative engagement with poets, and spans work created over the past 60 years, including prints, portfolios, special-edition books, paintings and unique cutouts.

“The career of Alex Katz has been one of inspiration and innovation,” said Louis Zona, executive director of The Butler. “Generations of artists have been inspired by his unique approach to portraiture and by his longtime influence on the New York School.”

Zona describes Katz as “a genius of American art.”

One of the most recognized and widely exhibited artists of his generation, Katz came of age between the Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art eras. He began exhibiting his work in 1954, and since that time has established himself as a preeminent painter of modern life whose distinctive portraits and lyrical landscapes bear a flattened surface and consistent economy of line.

As Katz entered the art world in the 1950s, a new style of American poetry emerged, and the painter found natural affinities to the poets in their shared interest in expressing contemporary living.

He developed a deep interest in poetry, an art form whose methodologies and tactics he considered “more stimulating than painting.”

A reception will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, with a reading from Vincent Katz, an acclaimed poet, translator, curator and critic. Vincent Katz is the author of numerous poetry collections. The reception will also feature the screening of a video, “In Dialogue with Alex Katz and Vincent Katz,” to be shown in Zona Auditorium. The poetry reading will take place after the video.

The exhibition at The Butler also marks the reprint of the comprehensive exhibition publication “Alex Katz: Collaborations with Poets.” This expanded volume features an in-depth essay written by art historian and curator Debra Bricker Balken and comprehensive illustrations of Katz’s book covers, print portfolios and unique artworks that center on his work with poets such as John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Ted Berrigan, Alice Notley and Ron Padgett.

Katz, who was born in 1927, is widely celebrated for his iconic portraits and depictions of modern life.

His earliest work took inspiration from various aspects of mid-century American culture and society, including television, film and advertising.

Since the 1950s, Katz’s work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions and nearly 500 group exhibitions around the world.

Pictured at top: This 1965 painting by Alex Katz, titled “Katz, Ada and Edwin,” is included in the exhibition opening at The Butler.

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