Alex Katz (born 1927)
1954–59 Small Cuts portfolio, 2008
aquatint
10 x 14.5 inches: image
25.4 x 36.8 cm
13.75 x 20 inches: paper
34.9 x 50.8 cm
Edition 26/50
signed and numbered lower left
unframed portfolio of 6 aquatint images and 6 poetry sheets. The Small Cuts Portfolio comprises six beautifully executed aquatints based on collages Katz made early in his career. The six images are paired with six poems (also aquatint prints) by John Godfrey written in both Italian and English. The portfolio was released in 2008 with a numeric edition of 50 and a roman numeral edition of 20. 
Alex Katz is an American figurative artist loosely associated with the Pop Art movement. In particular, he is known for his portrait paintings of his wife, Ada. Katz studied at the Cooper Union in New York and later transferred to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. His work is defined by flatness of color, bold forms, and an economy of line. These works are defined by Katz’s distinctive artistic voice—a vocabulary of elemental forms, aesthetic efficiency, and flat color. 
Widely recognized and globally celebrated, Katz has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout his career, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy Museum in 2007 and an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Colgate University in 2005. Katz's work has been in nearly 200 solo exhibitions internationally since 1954 and is in over 100 public collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn Museum; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Museum Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; and the Tate Modern, London.

excellent