Alex Katz at the Guggenheim, New York Review

By Ariella Budick

Alex Katz is a consummate painter of modern life. Like the Impressionists who earned that title before him, he has probed pleasures both urban and urbane, populating his canvases with people who enjoy life’s profound superficialities.

Alex Katz: Gathering, the Guggenheim’s retrospective of a painter who remains busy and sharp at 95, turns out to be not just scintillating, but consoling too. When all around is vitriol, soul-baring, hyperbole and rage, Katz’s muted emotional palette, ranging from quiet optimism to quiet melancholy, comes as an essential balm.