“Realist painting has to do with leaving out a lot of detail. I think my painting can be a little shocking in all that it leaves out. But what happens is that the mind fills in what's missing . . . Painting is a way of making you see what I saw.” ThinkingWayMindLittlesHappensSawsMissingPaintingLeavingDetailsShockingRealist Author:Alex Katz
“Picasso and Matisse were the guys I wanted to get away from, and cubism is all still lifes. Their paintings are all closed drawings. And still life is a perfect form for that. By the mid-'50s, I sort of dropped the still life. The large picture was a way of getting around them, too. The abstract expressionists were also into the large form because it was a way of getting around Matisse and Picasso. Picasso can't paint big paintings. Matisse didn't bother after a certain point.” WayStillsBigsWantedFormLife IsGuyCertainPerfectPaintingPaintDrawingBotherAbstractGet AwayStill LifeCubismMatisse Author:Alex Katz
“Part of what Im about is seeing how I can paint the same thing differently instead of different things the same way.” WayI CanDifferentSeeingPaintDifferent Things Book:Alex Katz, process and development: small paintings from the collection of Paul J. Schupf '58 Source: Alex Katz, process and development: small paintings from the collection of Paul J. Schupf '58
