Alex Katz (b. 1927)
Alex Katz (b. 1927)

The Yellow House

Details
Alex Katz (b. 1927)
The Yellow House
oil on canvas
96¼ x 108¼ in. (244.4 x 274.9 cm.)
Painted in 1985.
Provenance
Marlborough Gallery, New York
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Literature
A. Beattie, Alex Katz, New York, 1987, p. 56 (illustrated in color).
Exhibited
Buenos Aires, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Alex Katz, August-September 1998, p. 20 (illustrated in color).
Vienna, Albertina Museum, Alex Katz: Cartoons and Paintings, December 2004-February 2005, no. 8 (illustrated in color).

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Jennifer Yum
Jennifer Yum

Lot Essay

"The more obvious example of undercutting is seen in the ostensibly simple Yellow House of 1982. Here we question why the house has been approached from this angle. The lighter brushstrokes draw the eye upward. The little leaves seem to have a life of their own. They are like fish, swimming upward, into the light. The quantity of green seems to suggest a hugeness and solidity, but it is more than a detailed version of a bush or cluster of bushes that grows outside a house. It makes us stop thinking vaguely of that which we call 'nature' and think, instead, of its specifics. "

(A.Beattie, Alex Katz by Ann Beattie, New York, 1976, p. 69.)

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