What Should We Say About Alex Katz?

The Guggenheim is putting on a major retrospective of Alex Katz’s paintings. I came across a review of it by Alex Greenberger in Art News that was very negative. He calls the work “vapid.” (You can read the review here.)

I asked Bob S, a book club friend who has a great collection of art, including one fantastic Katz, what he thought of the review.

He said: “We’re going to NY next week and will see it. The NYT review from a few weeks ago was much more favorable. Any artist has some great works, some not so great works, and some failed experiments. This reviewer falls into the old art critic trap that says that if a painting is beautiful, it must be crap. I happen to think he’s a wonderful artist that created his own style, interesting and fun. I’ll comment on the exhibit after I see it.”

I agree with Bob. Katz developed a style that was and is unique. And also, obviously, enticing. That’s hard to do. His work is sometimes explained as social commentary. That’s a fair perspective. But it is not simplistic commentary, like most art that attempts to be social or political. There is a cleverness to Katz in the way he chooses scenes that resonate with the flatness of his painting and make it difficult to know to what degree he’s being ironic.