Oberes Belvedere

Alex Katz - Cool Painting

Portrait of woman with black wide brimmed hat and black sunglasses against yellow background
Alex Katz, Black Hat, 2010 / ALBERTINA, Wien – Sammlung Batliner © Bildrecht, Wien, 2021
Portrait of woman with black wide brimmed hat and black sunglasses against yellow background

7 March - 4 June 2023

One year after the 95th birthday of Alex Katz, the ALBERTINA Museum presents a comprehensive tribute to this artist from the rich holdings of its collection.

Alex Katz, born in New York in 1927, numbers among the most important exponents of US contemporary art. Large formats, broad brush strokes, vivid colors: these are the familiar Katz hallmarks. His concerns are color and composition. But why has Alex Katz’s oeuvre remained so unique to this day? In terms of formal aesthetics, we doubtless have Katz to thank for his rescue of hard-edge painting’s strictness for use in figurative painting. The sharp edged outlines of hard-edge and “radical flatness” had been viewed as painting’s terminal point: it was art that sought to depict pure abstraction and artificial motifs. In other words: art for the purest depiction of artificial motifs and forms, by no means suited to portraying motifs from the realm of banal reality. Alex Katz broke with this ideal, however, combining emotionally detached depictions of everyday reality with this supposedly incompatible way of painting taken from hard-edge.

Ever since then, Katz has since then been considered—analog to Miles Davis and “cool jazz”—the inventor of “cool painting.” Katz found the motifs for this highly reserved style of painting in the well-heeled leisure society of his art world circles as well as in the landscapes of Maine. The depicted individuals are almost exclusively friends and literary figures, and quite a few hail from New York’s dance scene.

Venue

Albertina

Albertinaplatz 1
1010 Wien

Tickets & Info

Current Dates

  • Sat. 25 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 26 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 27 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 28 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 29 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 30 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 31 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 01 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 02 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 03 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
All dates

All Dates

March

  • Sat. 25 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 26 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 27 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 28 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 29 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 30 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 31 Mar 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.

April

  • Sat. 01 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 02 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 03 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 04 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 05 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 06 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 07 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 08 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 09 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 10 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 11 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 12 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 13 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 14 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 15 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 16 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 17 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 18 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 19 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 20 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 21 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 22 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 23 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 24 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 25 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 26 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 27 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 28 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 29 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 30 Apr 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

May

  • Mon. 01 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 02 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 03 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 04 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 05 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 06 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 07 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 08 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 09 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 10 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 11 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 12 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 13 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 14 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 15 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 16 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 17 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 18 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 19 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 20 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 21 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 22 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 23 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 24 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Thu. 25 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 26 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 27 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 28 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Mon. 29 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Tue. 30 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Wed. 31 May 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.

June

  • Thu. 01 Jun 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Fri. 02 Jun 2023, 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
  • Sat. 03 Jun 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
  • Sun. 04 Jun 2023, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Fewer dates