Alex Katz at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise

In 1959, iconic representational painter Alex Katz made a somewhat drastic decision to cut away the background of a painting that wasn’t working and mount it on plywood. The result was the first of his cutouts, a wall-mounted or freestanding group of sculptures that Katz has created for decades. Now on view at Gavin Brown’s Grand Street location, cutouts include this diminutive cluster of friends. (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 22nd).

Alex Katz, JJ, Clarice, and Joe, oil on aluminum, 59 x 29 inches, 1965.