Ada with Sunglasses
Artist
Alex Katz
(American, born 1927)
Date1969
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 122.6 x 81.3 cm (48 1/4 x 32 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of Sidney and Rosalie Rose
Terms
Object number1983.62
Label TextAlex Katz painted his first portrait of Ada in 1957, the year before they were married. The series of Ada portraits that he has continued to paint since then are now iconic and within the history of the painted portrait are unprecedented in their focus on a single subject over many years. During the half century that has passed, much about art and American society has changed, but in images of Ada she continues to be an archetype of contemporary sophistication and social ease.
In Ada with Sunglasses, with its simplified form and flat areas of color, Katz achieved a reconciliation of postwar abstraction with the tradition of portraiture. His technique was dependent on careful planning, slow observation, and deft execution followed by meticulous refinement of shape and outline and ruthless editing of pictorial information. Katz tells us no more about Ada and her surroundings than is necessary to conjure her into existence. Composed like a “movie-star close-up,” the portrait is both intimate yet detached; Ada’s expression is unreadable but serious. Although the canvas carries subtle traces of Katz’s brushwork, its surface is one of complex smoothness emphasizing the play of clean but nuanced planes of color.
ProvenanceMr. Sidney Rose, Worcester MAOn View
On view
