Straw Hat 3

ALEX KATZ (B. 1927)

Straw Hat 3

signed in pencil 'Alex Katz' (lower left); numbered in pencil '52/100' (lower right)

archival pigment inks on Innova Etching Cotton Rag, 315 gsm, the full sheet

75 1/2 x 42 inches (191.8 x 106.7 cm)

Executed in 2022. This work is number 52 from an edition of 100 plus 20 artist's proofs.

Published by Lococo Fine Art Publisher, St. Louis.

PROVENANCE:

Acquired directly from the publisher by the present owner

"I sat for Alex Katz long ago when he painted a large facial portrait of me. It was typical of his simple, planar, partially textured work. This portrait is a bit more complex and colorful, very representative of his style and technique."

-Martha Stewart

NOTES:

“I always try to paint in the present tense. If you paint stories, you're painting in the past tense.” -Alex Katz

Alex Katz, born in Brooklyn in 1927, stands as a defining figure in postwar American art, known for his unmistakable blend of stylized realism and minimalist flair. Working against the grain of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, Katz developed a bold, flat aesthetic that came to anticipate and outlive the Pop Art movement. With a focus on clarity, light, and the immediacy of the present moment, his portraits strip away extraneous detail to heighten our awareness of the essential. Over a career spanning more than seven decades, Katz has achieved international acclaim and institutional recognition, with works held in over 100 public collections globally and major retrospectives, including a landmark 2022 exhibition at the Guggenheim, New York.

In Straw Hat 3, Katz returns to one of his most enduring themes of the serene, cinematic portrait. Rendered in his characteristic style of sharply defined planes and reduced forms, the woman’s closed eyes and gentle smile evoke a sense of timeless stillness. The patterned brim of her hat arcs confidently across the composition, its rhythm echoed in the energetic yet controlled background of leafy greens and vivid yellow. Katz’s pared-down approach transforms a fleeting moment into something iconographic and elevates an everyday gesture into an emblem of contemporary grace. With its use of line and luminous palette, Straw Hat 3 encapsulates Katz’s unique ability to distill life’s quiet dramas into powerful visual statements.