WATERVILLE — For decades American painter Alex Katz has split his time between New York City and Maine. From July 14 through Dec. 30, the Colby College Museum of Art, which holds the world’s largest collection of Katz’s work, will present an exhibition focusing on the themes of the city and the country in Katz’s work from the 1950s to the present.
Drawn from the Colby Museum’s collection and loans, “Alex Katz: Maine/New York” is curated by New York poet and critic Carter Ratcliff, an expert on Katz’s work. The exhibition includes 28 paintings and one multipart sculpture.
Katz’s connection to Maine dates to 1949, when he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His relationship with Colby began a few years later.
A quintessential New York artist, Katz is also a summer resident of Lincolnville. Thus, his subject matter varies widely, from landscape to cityscape, from rural vignette to Manhattan interior. A master of urban portraiture at its most elegant, he also paints “portraits” of trees and flower-strewn meadows.
In “Alex Katz: Maine/New York,” the viewer is immersed in the haze of a city afternoon, the flickering green light of a rural path, the glare of a fashionable event, the dusk as it descends on a pond in the Maine woods. At every step are encounters with the remarkable people who populate Katz’s paintings. Members of his family, friends and others who might be described as iconic figures represent the large themes that shape this artist’s world — night and day, city and countryside.
A special installation of the Colby Museum’s permanent collection, selected and arranged by the artist, complements the exhibition. This exhibition, “Interior Visions: Selections from the Collection by Alex Katz,” will be on view through Oct. 7.
Admission to the Colby College Museum of Art, which is undergoing an ambitious expansive, is free. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday.
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