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Red Coat

A work made of graphite, charcoal, and dry pigment on brown wove paper laid down on sintra, pricked for transfer.
Art © Alex Katz / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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  • A work made of graphite, charcoal, and dry pigment on brown wove paper laid down on sintra, pricked for transfer.

Date:

1982

Artist:

Alex Katz
American, born 1927

About this artwork

This final preparatory cartoon for the painting Red Coat (1982, Whitney Museum of American Art) illustrates the last step in Alex Katz’s very traditional working process, a method that can be traced back to the Renaissance. Katz begins his portraits with a series of preparatory sketches from life. In these sketches, Katz experiments with gesture and works out ideas for the finished composition. Katz then creates a small painting of the subject, consolidating the ideas he has explored in the previous sketches. A finished drawing in which the artist resolves all of the remaining compositional and lighting issues is made from the painted sketch and enlarged into a cartoon. The cartoon is transferred by poking holes along the lines of the drawing with a pouncing wheel. It is placed on the canvas, and dry pigment is pressed through the holes in the drawing, transferring the lines onto the canvas. Ultimately, because its composition is so carefully plotted out, the work has an intentionally limited sense of spontaneity.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Alex Katz

Title

Red Coat

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1982

Medium

Graphite, charcoal, and dry pigment on brown wove paper laid down on Sintra, pricked for transfer

Dimensions

252.8 × 121 cm (99 1/2 × 47 11/16 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by the Adele and Willard Gidwitz Family Foundation

Reference Number

2004.513

Copyright

Art © Alex Katz / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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