That Various Field: Alex Katz’s Creative Communities and the Field of Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Painting to be art has to give and take.
—Alex Katz, “Brand New and Terrific,” 1961
Alex Katz’s work is distinguished by generative engagements with the worlds of dance, theater, literature, and fashion. Friends and collaborators from across these fields form the rich creative community that has surrounded the artist since the mid-century, and is pictured throughout the retrospective Alex Katz: Gathering.
In celebration of the exhibition’s final weeks, and in partnership with Colby College Museum of Art on the occasion of their current exhibition, Alex Katz: Theater and Dance, this program explores the dynamics of interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange. Taking as its frame of reference Katz’s boundary-crossing partnerships over the last seven decades with poets, dancers, directors, and designers, a series of panel discussions and poetry readings will see contemporary artists and scholars working inventively across disciplines to offer their perspectives about the imaginative possibilities and sensibilities that artists forge through collaboration. The program will conclude with an after-hours viewing of Alex Katz: Gathering exclusively for program attendees.
