Alex Katz (born 1927, Brooklyn, New York) is a highly influential American figurative artist celebrated for his distinctive portraits, landscapes, and "cutouts." Emerging in the 1950s against the backdrop of Abstract Expressionism, Katz developed a signature style characterized by its cool detachment, flattened perspectives, bold simplification of forms, and sophisticated use of color and light. His work often features his wife and muse, Ada, as well as friends, poets, artists, and scenes from his life in New York and Maine.Influenced by sources ranging from Japanese woodblock prints to film and billboard advertising, Katz's paintings are known for their large scale, dramatic cropping, and an aesthetic that anticipated aspects of Pop Art while remaining uniquely his own. He is also a prolific printmaker and has created freestanding painted aluminum cutouts that translate his two-dimensional figures into sculptural forms. Katz's work has been the subject of numerous international exhibitions and is held in major museum collections worldwide.