kestnergesellschaft presents alex katz | naked beauty an exhibition on view 5 February 2012.
Alex Katz, “Pink Nude 1” (Detail), 1990. Öl auf Leinwand, 183 cm x 244 cm. Courtesy Alex Katz; Galerie Jablonka, Köln; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg/Paris. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011. Photo: Paul Takeuchi, New York.
The US-American painter Alex Katz (*1927 in Brooklyn, lives in New York) will be showing a series of nudes covering the period from 1980s to the present day, juxtaposed with selected city views of New York in his show at the kestnergesellschaft. In this way, two extremes coincide in the exhibition “naked beauty”: the human body and architecture stand side by side and tell the story of the capacity of Katz’s painting to transform subjective impressions into universal symbols.
Until now, Alex Katz’s nudes have never been gathered together in such a concentration and profusion within the framework of one exhibition. With his characteristically focused works replete with crisp lines and surfaces, the painter explores the relationship between the real and the painted figure, creating paintings of singular persons and situations that are universally symbolic at the same time. The city views of New York shown in tandem with the nudes are drawn from situations and forms of everyday life, which, alongside the direct encounter with the life model, represent the material for his paintings. By means of the juxtaposition of nude and landscape as two traditional genres, the kestnergesellschaft is initiating a discussion on the essence of Alex Katz’s painterly enquiries: his respect for old subjects while rendering them modern, the translation of fleeting moments of perception in form and surface, the creation of perfect, cool planes of color using the traditional means of painting. When we look at Katz’s works, we see pictures that fluctuate between subjectivity and universality, without ever reconciling the two.
The Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg will publish an 100-page catalogue on the exhibition, with over 50 Illustrations. In English and German with a foreword by Veit Görner and essays by Morgan Falconer and Kathrin Meyer.
kestnergesellschaft
Goseriede 11
30159 Hanover, Germany
Tuesday–Sunday and on holidays 11 am–6 pm
Thursday 11 am–8 pm
Mondays closed
www.kestnergesellschaft.de