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Ada, Late Summer

Artist Alex Katz (American, born 1927)

Date1994

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 48 x 72 in. (121.9 x 182.9 cm)

ClassificationsContemporary art

Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds provided by Oriana and Arnold McKinnon, David and Susan Goode, Leah and Richard Waitzer, Dylan, Max, Jessica and Leyla Sandler, Mrs. George M. Kaufman, Mrs. Charles R. Dalton, Jr., Dr. Paul and Renée Mansheim, Pat and Jeff Brown, Mary Ellen and Daniel Dechert, Barbara and Andrew Fine, Mr. and Mrs. Harry T. Lester, Gus and Deanne Miller, Nancy and Malcolm Branch, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore D. Galanides, Martha and Richard Glasser, Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Rowland, Jr., Dr. Robert and Judy Rubin, Melanie and Ken Wills, Anne and Lawrence Fleder, Marion Johnson Lidman, Lois and Hil Strode, and matching funds from Norfolk Southern Corporation, Caterpillar, Inc., Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Texas Instruments. Additional funds provided by the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Art Purchase Fund and Landmark Communications Art Purchase Fund

Object number2001.41

Terms

Woman
Katz
Portrait
Gray
Blue
Black
White
Tan
Red
Pink

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a portrait of Ada Katz, the artists' wife. She stands on the beach with her back to the ocean in Lincolnville, Maine. She wears a summer dress with a dark vest over it, left open. Her left hand rests securely on her hip.

Label TextAlex Katz American, b. 1927 Ada, Late Summer, 1994 Oil on canvas At first glance, Alex Katz’s painting reads like a summer snapshot—his wife, Ada, posing on Lincolnville Beach in Maine, the family’s favorite holiday retreat. Yet Katz’s large-scale oil painting does away with photographic realism, reducing the image to a set of broad, flat shapes that verge on complete abstraction. As Katz has explained, “Style and appearance are the things I’m more concerned about than what something means…. I prefer [my works] to be emptied of meaning, emptied of content.” Though the image depicts a beloved wife smiling, the treatment is coolly detached, as Katz moves beyond everyday sentiment to investigate the complexities of perception itself. Museum purchase with funds provided by Oriana and Arnold McKinnon, David and Susan Goode, Leah and Richard Waitzer, Annie and Art Sandler, Mrs. George M. Kaufman, Mrs. Charles R. Dalton, Jr., Dr. Paul and Renée Mansheim, Pat and Jeff Brown, Mary Ellen and Daniel Dechert, Barbara and Andrew Fine, Mr. and Mrs. Harry T. Lester, Gus and Deanne Miller, Nancy and Malcolm Branch, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore D. Galanides, Martha and Richard Glasser, Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Rowland, Jr., Dr. Robert and Judy Rubin, Melanie and Ken Wills, Anne and Lawrence Fleder, Marion Johnson Lidman, Lois and Hil Strode, and matching funds from Norfolk Southern Corporation, Caterpillar, Inc., Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Texas Instruments. Additional funds provided by the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Art Purchase Fund and Landmark Communications Art Purchase Fund 2001.41