The Stein Collection and Alex Katz in Paris
At the beginning of the 20th century the siblings Gertrude, Leo and Michael Stein traveled from the United States to Paris. While Michael, his wife Sarah and Leo eventually returned to the US, Gertrude remained in Paris until her death. Gertrude Stein was not only a writer and poet, but not too long after their arrival she and her brother organized a salon in their apartment which became a hot spot for the Parisian “avant-garde.” Over the years the Steins accumulated an art collection of epic proportions. Their collection includes works by the godfathers of abstract art such as Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Bonnard, and Gris.
Interior shot of the Stein apartment in Paris
I do not intend to write a review of the exhibition that is currently on display at the Grand Palais in Paris. There are some true knock-out paintings like the Matisse landscapes and a small painting by Manet so thinly treated with paint that one wonders if he saw it as a study or a self-sufficient work. What I do want to comment on is something that has been on my mind for some time and reoccurs whenever I see Picasso’s work.
One room of the Stein family exhibition brings together several fascinating paintings by Pablo Picasso. The center piece is a portrait of Gertrude Stein (which can also be seen in the photograph above) painted in 1906.
Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, 1906
Her eyes are not entirely aligned and this slight shift of symmetries occurs in several areas of the painting. The background indicates wallpaper on the right side while the left side reveals a bare wall and what appears to be part of the chair that Gertrude Stein sits in. She is positioned in the corner of a room, but due to the lack of straight lines that trace the architecture of the corner, the room wraps itself around her almost as it it was resting on her shoulders. Picasso must have been looking closely at Matisse’s work and the way that the latter dissolved any distinction between foreground and background.
Next to the Gertrude Stein portrait (to its left), the curators have placed “Nude with a towel” from 1907.
Pablo Picasso, Nude with a towel, 1907
Some of the colors that are traditionally associated with portrait painting, specifically the reddish brown tones, are bordered by a radiant blue. If you look from one painting to the other you can see how the figure in “Nude with a towel” fills out most of the frame. What could be a background has become an extension of the body.
Then, to the right of the Gertrude Stein painting, two other Picasso portraits from 1906 have been added. The first one is a gouache of Allan Stein while the second piece is a self-portrait.
Pablo Picasso, Allan Stein, 1906
Pablo Picasso, Self-Portrait, 1906
Imagine the following: Picasso lives in our time and has recently finished his MFA. He is now preparing a portfolio of work to apply to post-graduate studies, residencies and galleries. What do you think would be the reaction of the review panels looking at his work? Most of the reviewers would consider Picasso’s work to be uneven and incoherent. While he is now identified as innovator and explorer (or alternatively the most annoying artist who has ever lived due to his ongoing omnipresence), I believe that in our current state of the art world he would have a very difficult time promoting his work.
Alex Katz, Double Sarah B., 2011
The following day I went to the gallery Thaddaeus Ropac to see Alex Katz’s show “Face the music.” When I was standing in their oversized space surrounded by about half a dozen large-scale Katz paintings, my mind started wandering off to the Picasso room of the previous day. How has Katz been getting away with painting one kind of archetype for the past five to six decades? I don’t recall one Katz painting that demonstrates a departure from his common style. The Alex Katz Collection at the Colby College Museum of Art offers a comprehensive overview of work by the artist from the 1950s onward. Let’s take a brief look at some of his paintings.
Alex Katz, Ada in a purple dress, 1958-59
Alex Katz, Rockaway, 1961
Alex Katz, Stanley, 1973
Alex Katz, Anna Lauterbach, 1978
Alex Katz, Red Coat, 1983
I think I can stop here. This is, to some degree, a superficial take on Alex Katz. I agree. But it is meant to be superficial. The first thing you register when you glance at art is how much a particular object of art diverts from what you think you know about it. You feel challenged in your perception. In case of Picasso, I frequently catch myself complaining about yet another show of his work. But then it is rare that I will leave a Picasso show without a new discovery. All I see in Katz is sameness.The flatness and reductive nature of his figures is not a characteristic he arrives at, but a starting point that never changes. While Picasso displays such rigor, self-awareness, versatility, experimentation, risk and play within one single year, Alex Katz does not manage to divert from his “vision” even once over the course of six decades. His collaborations and attempts at installation do not make up for the lack of diversity and risk. Take a look at my previous post on Joan Snyder and how she keeps up an ever-evolving practice.
Katz is not alone in this. How about Chuck Close? How about Ali Banisadr, Georg Baselitz, or Robert Longo? How about the painting trio Albert Oehlen, Jonathan Meese and Bjarne Melgaard and their “painted provocations” (how can provocations be so calculated, repetitive and exchangeable?). How about Peter Halley? How about Will Cotton, Lisa Yuskavage, or Neo Rauch? This list could be much longer and include emerging and mid-career artists alike. The idea that painters today have to create a specific niche for themselves is usually confused with dedication and obsession. Be dedicated and obsessed with painting. But why do you have to be obsessed with painting one thing only? Why is the idea of an artist with a specific style a positive feature? Why not paint everything in every possible way? Should not that be the new way of the contemporary painter? The artists who I have listed here are commercially successful and that is why, at least for now, things will remain the way they are.
