Alex Katz: The White Coat

The serial and the sartorial: permutations of a motif in new portraits by Alex Katz Published for the artists 2021 show at Gray Chicago, Alex Katz: The White Coat debuts the latest series from Alex Katz (born 1927), titled Vivien in White Coat: 11 large-scale portraits depicting Vivien Bittencourt, the painters daughter-in-law, wearing a radiant white coat. Using a palette dominated by white, black and pale blue, Katz radically crops and magnifies the figure from an array of dynamic perspectives within the picture plane. Balancing the specific and the abstract, the intimate and the remote, the geometric and the gestural, Katz positions the figure in space with deftness, brevity and sartorial elegance. Notwithstanding Katzs seriality, the white coat appears mysterious and enigmatic within each composition. Alex Katz: The White Coat features an essay by renowned curator and writer Jan Verwoert, 42 color illustrations and an artists biography.