Timothy Taylor – Alex Katz: Chippies

(13 May - 25 June, 2022)

Private View: 13 May, 6-8PM

Six months away from his career-sweeping retrospective at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York opening October 2022, Alex Katz is a towering figure in contemporary art, internationally recognised for his singular ability to distill disparate elements of the culture – from the gestural power of abstract painting and Modernist poetry to the bold colours of mid-century cinema and advertising – into vibrant depictions of modern life. On display for the first time here, the Birds series (2020–present) represents a new leap into near-pure abstraction with striking avian subject matter, inspired by the chipping sparrows (‘chippies’) seen pecking in the snow outside the artist’s window. Stark and minimal, they are both meditative and disquieting, drawing on the millennium-old art of Japanese scroll painting and the Minimalist exploration of negative space as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic 1962 noir, The Birds.