Alex Katz
Born in Brooklyn in 1927, Alex Katz is known for his invention of »Cool Painting«, a sober, realistic style characterized by a clear flatness in terms of technique and image content, and a reduction to a minimum in color and detail. Already in his youth, the artist took a liking to the abstract expressionism of the 1940s but was also influenced by his preoccupation with avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century, such as Cubism or Bauhaus which he came across during his study of painting in New York. Although Katz is regarded as the pioneer of Pop Art, no consumer goods or public figures serve him as a motive. Instead, he deals with his immediate everyday environment and oftentimes portrays friends, family members but also people of New York's upper class, as it shows in his cutout editions. His influence on Pop Art becomes clear simply by refraining from narrative elements and as well as using large formats, which are often reminiscent of advertising posters of the 1950s.