Alex Katz is one of the most influential American painters of the postwar era, known for his distinctive fusion of realism and flat abstraction. Over a career spanning more than seven decades, Katz has developed a visual language that is immediately recognizable; bold, distilled, and luminous. With roots in mid century modernism and Pop Art, his pared down style has made him a bridge between generations, influencing artists from David Salle and Elizabeth Peyton to younger painters working today.

Orange Gerbera Daisy 2 (2022) exemplifies Katz’s late career mastery of color and composition. A single, oversized flower dominates the canvas, rendered with confident brushwork and a striking economy of detail. Set against a pale background, the vibrant orange bloom becomes almost iconic, at once intimate and monumental. Katz’s florals are not botanical studies; they are meditations on perception, light, and immediacy. Like his celebrated portraits, these works are about presence, and how something feels in a single, distilled moment.

Painted in his mid-90s, this canvas reveals an artist still pushing the boundaries of clarity and form. His flowers, often drawn from his garden in Maine, are contemporary still lifes that vibrate with life and luminosity. Similar aspects and concepts can be found in Monet’s or Yoo’s works. It captures the fleeting, sensual beauty of the natural world, suspended between transience and eternity.

Alex Katz’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Tate Modern, the Guggenheim, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Centre Pompidou, among many others.

Provenance
The artist