The Fractured and Layered Realities of Alex Katz’s Cut-Outs

From left: Orange Blouse, 1959, oil on board, 26 x 14 1/4 inches; Tom, 1959, oil on board, 39 x 12 inches; Rudy B, 1973, oil on aluminum, dimensions unavailable; Thursday Night 2, 1974, oil on aluminum, 24 x 19 inches; Ada (Weather), 1970, oil on board, 17 x 13 1/4 inches. Image courtesy of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise.

The immediacy of Alex Katz’s current exhibition at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise on Grand Street in Lower Manhattan is astounding. Entitled The Cut-Outs, the paintings on view, erected as flat objects in three-dimensional space, feel as fresh as the era in which they were made: The 1950s-80s. Katz’s figures dominate the gallery’s floor space, independently and collectively approaching the inquisitive viewer. The works are infinitely rewarding for those acquainted with Katz’s paintings, as they demonstrate an expansion of his masterful practice into the third dimension. Wall-mounted paintings frame the cut-outs scattered throughout, creating a scene in which flat images combine to create a nuanced visual language and multi-layered space while separating characters in a scene from one another across the gallery.

An interesting departure point for this exhibition can be found in Katz’s own words on image creation. In an interview with Richard Prince, Katz revealed the intended effects of his work. “The idea of a complete picture is neither better [n]or worse than most ideas and it is not newer or older. However, it’s harder to make a new picture that’s a complete picture.” Gavin Brown’s Enterprise creates a complete picture in arranging this exhibition, allowing Katz’s “full picture” to unfold across the gallery, wrapping narratives together while simultaneously providing space for individual storylines to develop. Two men and a woman stand near the front windows, engaged in conversation yet simultaneously detached. A woman and her dog float above the gallery floor while two men stand side by side nearby, facing the window in anticipation. The complete picture is one of individual portraits brought together to cohabit within a shared synthetic environment.

From left: Sally, 1972, oil on aluminum, 25 x 9 inches; Joe and Jane, 1960, oil on board, 56 x 34 inches; Eric and Peter, 1991, oil on aluminum, 72 1/4 x 38 x 11 1/2 inches; J.J., Clarice, and Joe, 1965, oil on aluminum, 59 x 29 inches; Ada and Sunny, 1973, oil on aluminum, 65 x 24 inches. Image courtesy of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise.

Katz responded to Prince in the same interview about incorporating a passive-aggressive attitude into his work. “That term could be applied to my paintings. I think of them [my paintings] as contained and aggressive.” The aggression in Katz’s work is embedded within the conceptual approach to this multidimensional exhibition. Figures scattered throughout the space serve as closed circuits, completing themselves and un-reliant upon the viewer to interpret their intentions. Their expressions remain fixed to deep space, gazing beyond the observer. Layered within these portraits lie latent the multitudinous possibilities of reproduction: The aggression of the figure and its intrusion into three-dimensional space. These portraits may inhabit three dimensions, yet remain flattened: Peoples’ images captured, flattened then re-introduced, away from the gallery walls, as flat objects. It’s this self-conscious play of dimensionality and careful presentation that establish the triumph of this exhibition. Jean Baudrillard observed of Walter Benjamin’s statements on reproduction that the reproduction of objects “…absorbs the process of production and alters its goals.” What, then, can be intuited from Katz’s production of these cut-outs: Presenting reproduced images of individuals into the lived environments and off the cold, remote gallery walls? What goals can be implicit in these repeatedly altered forms?

Despite the dated timeline of the works in this exhibition, these figures communicate abrupt contemporaneity. In an era of augmented reality and consistent visual distraction, Katz’s figures remain idiosyncratic, yet present and rooted within the space. Some of his cut-outs are painted on the recto and verso, while some only show the figure head-on with a black reverse side. Katz has clearly experimented with this series, and rightly so over a thirty-year period. Where a disembodied head floats before visitors initially entering the space, clusters of figures stand side-by-side as the visitor moves further into the space. The range of works on view is both consistent and surprising: Figures recline on a couch or remain suspended in space, an expressionist couple poses with props in thin air while Allen Ginsberg’s head mediates the space through which the viewer can maneuver. Katz inhabits all variations of the work — his hand is present — yet the evolution of this series remains apparent throughout.

Left: Susan and Larry, 1974, oil on aluminum, 16 x 34 inches. Right: Laura Dean Dance, 1977, oil on aluminum, 19 x 15 inches. Image courtesy of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise.

Katz does reveal a masterwork in this exhibition that commanding the central space at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise. This is the layered, larger-than-life portrait of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Katz mentioned the impact of Ginsberg’s work to the New York Times, indicating his respect for the poet: “His poetry has a real big energy to it. When you get involved with large-scale works, you appreciate the large-scale works of other artists.” The scale of this portrait dwarfs any other figures in the room, with Ginsberg’s size shifting according to the perspective the viewer takes. A seemingly experimental work for a figurative painter such as Katz, the Cubist impulse here is spread across the depth of space and can naturally be read as an extension of the Beat poet’s impulse for expanded reality. In introducing Cubism, Katz’s skill as a colorist must be addressed: The artist can be seen as a force uniting the dual energies of Picasso and Matisse, the famously recalcitrant rivals. A division of the picture plane combined with direct and expressive color combinations indicates a manifestation of both of these historical painting greats. This work may originate from the 1950s, but for such a painter with such a defined style, the work holds its own in the contemporary moment.

Allen Ginsburg, 1985, oil on aluminum, overall dimensions 72 5/8 x 180 inches. Image courtesy of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise.

Katz is a painter with a storied career whose practice is hard to place within specific art historical movements. “I never wanted to be part of a movement,” the artist once proclaimed, and history has proven that he never had to be. These cut-out figures seem timeless yet distinctly modern, painterly yet direct. “’I work empirically, just painting what I see, and at a certain point trying to capture the experience of certain things.” The image is captured, the experience conveyed, arguably nowhere more forcefully than in this series of cut-outs. This body of work remains undeniably Katz’s, yet it expands outward in a confrontational yet quiet interaction with the viewer. His range of subjects indicate a restless and curious mind, with the various environments and objects inherent to the individual works providing a survey of influences. These snapshots of people in Katz’s life, taken from studies and oil sketches and evolving into carefully cropped constructions, are mindfully suspended through space in this carefully curated show.

In response to a question from Richard Prince on his accuracy from the aforementioned interview, Katz believes his accuracy lies in his superior ability as an observer of “Light. Clothes. People.” All three are apparent in this stunning exhibition, revealing a new dimension of Katz as an artist. The images splinter across the space, creating narrative layers and spiraling off into introspection. The artist winks at the fleeting contemporary impulse, showing how even thirty-plus years ago Katz anticipated the fragmentary nature of our ever expanding reality.

Alex Katz
Cut Outs: 1950s-1980s
Gavin Brown’s Enterprise
291 Grand Street
New York, NY
November 5 – December 17, 2017
https://www.gavinbrown.biz/home/exhibitions/current