Alex Katz: Floating Worlds

From seascapes to studies of light and reflections on water, Katz's often monumental works challenge the conventions of landscape painting
Alex Katz (born 1927) is celebrated for his up-close, Pop-style portraiture, but he has also produced a tremendous number of landscapes―or rather, “waterscapes.” These often-monumental paintings play with light and reflection to create delicate, immersive compositions. Unlike conventional landscapes, his paintings contain minimal recessive space: “you look at one, and you float inside of it,” says Katz. The artist gathers inspiration from the lakes and forests of Maine, where he works en plein air in the style of the French Impressionists. His work can be understood as an evolved Impressionism, pursuiing a flatter, more opaque form of immediacy.
Published in conjunction with an exhibit curated by art historian Éric de Chassey, Floating Worlds spotlights these subtly exquisite landscape works from 1989 to 2020.