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Label Text This painting depicts a cocktail party. Ada, the figure in the center of the canvas, stands seemingly isolated amongst her guests in the vastness of a stark, black background. The guests converse with careful poise, and from a distance, they appear to be enjoying themselves. Upon closer inspection, the unusual composition and the absence of emotion in the figures creates a tension and unease that is magnified by the enormity of the painting. The title suggests that friendships are like gardens, both requiring a certain amount of cultivation if they are to be successful.
One of the most important painters to emerge in the 1960s, Alex Katz adapted the size and scale of Abstract Expressionism to create a new form of realism. He revolutionized the traditional genres of portraiture and landscape to create distinctly modern pqintings that feature flat planes and radically cropped compositions. Katz attempts to capture "that immediate sensation before you focus." Many paintings, like Ada's Garden, pesent portraits of family and friends, such as his wife Ada who stands alone at the center of a cocktail party. Source: DMAC NEWS, March April 2001
Published ReferencesRobert Storr,"Alex Katz Paints Ada", The Jewish Museum and Yale University Press, 2006

ALEX KATZ GATHERING, ed. by Katherine Brinson with Levi Prombaum, Guggenheim, 2022, illus. p.69, pl.11, text, pg. 69-70, photoand text credit, p. 383
DimensionsCanvas (/image): 120 × 240 in. (304.8 × 609.6 cm)
Accession Number 2000.23
Classificationspainting
CopyrightARS
ProvenanceArtist; (Pace Wildenstein Gallery); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 2000]

Images (1)

Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines

Audio (1)

Audio Transcript

DSM Speaks Audio Tour with Mamta Israni, Community Member

Run Time: 3:06
Recorded by Mamta Israni, CultureALL Community Ambassador / 2022


Mamta Israni Bio

Mamta Israni has lived in four different countries but considers Iowa her home. She enjoys traveling, gardening, cooking, reading and learning new things.


DES MOINES SPEAKS

DSM Speaks are short audio reflections on artwork in our permanent collection, written and voiced by diverse members of our community. Contributors to this program were selected in partnership with CultureALL and the Des Moines Art Center. We hope by elevating these diverse ways of seeing we can encourage all visitors to connect more deeply and to see themselves and their identities within our walls.

Ada's Garden
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit Richard Sanders, Des Moines
Alex Katz
1972
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Alex Brown
2003
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Albert Marquet
c. 1898-1899
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Walter Wellington Quirt
1951
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Gardner George Symons
date unknown
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ralph Albert Blakelock
date unknown
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Roy Lichtenstein
1969