"Ada with Flowers" 1980
Signed and numbered ##/65 lower right margin
Screenprint
48 x 36 1/8 inch 122 x 91.6 cm
Edition of 65
 
 
"Ada with Flowers" is a striking example of how Alex Katz transforms a simple portrait into something both intimate and highly stylized. Katz reduces detail to essentials—smooth skin tones, minimal shading, and crisp outlines—creating a sense of immediacy. There is very little illusion of depth; instead, everything exists on the surface, which gives the work its distinctly modern, almost graphic quality. Ada is both present and slightly distant, a recurring tension in Katz’s portraits. The flowers can be read as celebratory, but also as a visual barrier, partially obscuring her—suggesting themes of beauty, perception, and distance.