Alex Katz

1965
Not on view
Philip Pearlstein’s portrait of Alex Katz is the first gift from Katz to enter The Met’s collection. Both Katz and Pearlstein remained committed to figurative painting during the 1950s and 1960s, decades otherwise dominated by abstraction. Despite this affinity, however, their approaches to representing the figure are quite different. Pearlstein’s painting of Katz exemplifies a degree of realism absent in Katz’s portrait of Pearlstein (MMA 1979.213.1).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Alex Katz
  • Artist: Philip Pearlstein (American, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1924–2022 New York, New York)
  • Date: 1965
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 29 7/8 in. × 36 in. (75.9 × 91.4 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Alex Katz, 1978
  • Object Number: 1978.282
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Philip Pearlstein, Courtesy Betty Cunningham Gallery, New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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