The High Museum of Art is located in Atlanta and is where the artwork of Alex Katz’s exhibition, entitled “This Is Now” is currently being displayed. The exhibition will be at the museum from June 21-September 6 and has several of Katz’s best paintings that he has done throughout his career. The painting style used by Katz is figurative and flat using imagery to create vivid works of art. Katz’s is known for his flat landscape paintings that are on display in the exhibition, “Katz's monumental landscape paintings are executed in what is now considered a signature style characterized by flattened planes of color, shallow pictorial space, and lean, reductive but acutely descriptive lines” (Alex Katz, This Is Now). For example, in …show more content…
The painting is an oil on linen with a complete light blue landscape in the background and has beautiful white roses on display across the canvas. The monochromatic background allows the white roses to display purity across the painting in a rhythmic fashion. The flowers offer guidance to the viewer with smooth detailed lines that make the image seem as if the flowers are actually moving in the wind. The content in the exhibition is Katz attempt to paint his images as if they are happening in the moment, “Katz seeks to convey the appearance of things as they are both felt and perceived in the "present tense," the now”(Alex Katz, This Is Now). The painting Summer Picnic, is one of the canvases being shown in Katz’s exhibition “This Is Now” and is a wonderful demonstration in which Katz captures an image in time. Katz paints an ordinary family sitting at a picnic table having lunch, but creates a timeless imagery by the great detail shown in every family members face. The expressions on the family member’s faces create conversations and construct a snapshot of the family almost making them seem real or making the painting feel like a photograph. Visual elements are demonstrated by Katz in …show more content…
The appearance of the art adds to the content of the work. Katz’s art is designed to be seen in present tense and he accomplishes this goal through the creative designs in his paintings. The arrangement of the art played a major factor in the content on display in the canvases. In Sunset 1, Katz captures a sunset in action behind a set of trees, this arrangement allows the painting to have the ability to display the sun setting in a realistic fashion. By placing trees in front of the sun, Katz creates the depth needed to achieve his objective in crafting a present tense image. The content of the art is enhanced by the organization and design put together throughout the paintings in the exhibition. Organic unity is acquired in the exhibition by Katz’s ability to combine the subject, form and content successfully. The subject of the paintings are balanced out by the content and form or visual elements. The colors in the canvases are always flattering of each other which then indicates the content of the painting, “The painting exemplifies Katz's superlative handling of color relationships and present images that resonate with a sense of familiarity” (Alex Katz, This Is Now). The free flowing nature of Katz’s art creates aesthetically pleasing and conceptually engaging images. The rhythm that is created in the paintings really makes the images enjoyable to view. In his painting