Spotlight on strategic philanthropy – interview with Eric Berseth

Text: Francesca Martinoli 
Art Curator, EFG Corporate Collection

Coming of age as an artist in the 1950s in New York, Alex Katz developed his unique approach to contemporary representational painting at the height of the Abstract Expressionism movement.

Over a period of seven decades since his first exhibition in 1954, he has produced an acclaimed body of work, including paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints. A pre-eminent painter of modern life, Katz draws inspiration from films, billboard advertising, music and poetry, as well as his close circle of friends and family. Primarily working from life, he produces images in which line and form are expressed through carefully composed strokes and planes of flat colour.

This portrait from the EFG Art Collection can be interpreted as a visual metaphor for staying agile and composed while everything around us is shifting.

This appears to be a simple portrait of Vivien, the wife of his son Vincent. If you look more closely, you realise that this work, like all of his great portraits, is the result of a combination of autonomous elements: a three-quarter bust, a flat background and a monochrome line in the horizon. Vivien's eyes are not on the same axis; they are misaligned precisely to accentuate this desire for decomposition, which could trivially seem like the transposition of a normal somatic trait. Simplifying and reducing each component to the bare minimum, Katz stylises them so that each one exudes a strength and sensuality capable of uniting with the whole through a homogeneous and magnetic intensity.

The rendering of maximum simplification, of a cool and dissolved style, is also achieved through the use of light in Katz's works. Vivien's casual clothing, the contrast between the black of her hat and the ochre of her jacket, further highlight the features of her face, which is simple, expressionless and timeless. This is a portrait without place or time − a symbol to express many things simultaneously in a single image.

This radical simplification can be understood as a desire to cut through noise and complexity in order to focus on what matters most − a key aspect of agility in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments. In a volatile world, this calm, concentrated pose creates the impression of an agile individual or leader who stays anchored in the present, carefully observing the situation instead of reacting impulsively.