Night

Since 1962 Alex Katz has been recognized for his billboard-scale paintings, which focus on the human figure. His cool detachment in these monumental paintings is the culmination of his lengthy working process. He begins with preparatory drawings, then develops a small oil sketch, and then follows the sketch with a full-scale cartoon, which is later transferred to the large canvas. In the final stage Katz paints the entire canvas in oil in a single session. "The surface is kept wet, paint is painted into existing wet paint. That is, wet into wet. This enables me to get the finished surface I want," notes the artist. Executed in New York in the winter of 1976, "Night" is the portrait of the artist's wife, Ada. A spot of light from a lamp near the couch highlights Ada's profile in the darkness. In the background a fragment of the painting Vincent and Ada (1976) is seen. Katz's aim in his night paintings is formal and complex: "The place doesn't matter," he noted in an interview with author Donald Kuspit. "It's the armature for the light." In 1981, "Night" was exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery and was subsequently acquired for the Academy's permanent collection.