Arts & Life

KATZ from page 35

DISCOVER

MEET

hallenging learning environrnent

• Dynamic educators and administrators

• AP and honors courses

• Talented student leaders

• Competitive athletics program

• Recent graduates

• Vibrant arts department

• Experienced college counselors

Sunday,
February 6, 2005

Marion and David Handleman Hall

D. Dan and Betty Kahn Building

Jewish Community Center

1:45 PM Registration
2:00 PM Presentation
3:00 PM Tour of School

Eugene and Marcia Applebaum

Jewish Community Campus, West Bloomfield, Ml

JEWISH
ACADEMY

-

of Metropolitan Detroit

Critical thinkers. Confident leaders. Committed Jews.

For more information: 248-592-JAMD (5263)
wwwjamd.org

MVO:

E

4•Vir...1.5 ,C100t.

New, Easy On-Line
Donations

NASIII1ROWNS

6 1 2 e3 enm
H agger po R
notia
Road
acTr

Maple Sr

(BREAKFAST LUNCH & MORE West Bloomfield

Our Restaurant is available
for evening functions
for more information: 248-668-2690

New Hours: 7 Days a week • 7:00 am - 3:00 A

1/27
2005

36

248-668-2690

"In honor of.."
"In memory of..."

Now you can make donations to
the charity of your choice on-line!
No stamps, envelopes or checks
needed. Our on-line link will let
you donate to many charities
locally and abroad. It's safe,
easy and secure. A beautiful
acknowledgement card will be
sent by mail to the recipient.

Just log on to:
www.detroitjewishnews.com or
www.irakaufman.com
and click on the Donations link.

/6711.T.ILTS1241,4

THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL

Sr' r:ot.

rarra,

-

imagine the artist concentrating on
nature. But he does, brilliantly and vivid-
ly, and has since his studies in Maine,
where he began the discipline of painting
daily outdoors and still summers every
year.
And it's these landscapes that Hilberry's
exhibition focuses on, particularly works
from over the last decade, when there's
been an intense focus on landscape in his
work.
'About 10 years ago, I started working
on very large environmentals," says Katz.
"I wanted it to feel like you were inside
the painting.
"Landscapes are generally far away,
deep in space. But I think environmen-
tals should wrap right around you. Now,
though, I'm trying to scale down, and
the focus is light, which is determined
perceptually. It all comes from an idea —
you just see something, and it clicks with
the ideas you have. Usually I don't see
something in it, but if I see it, I can paint
it."
Katz, Hilberry adds, "brings the same
kind of attention, spatial condensing and
simplification to his landscapes as he
does to his portraits, but in his land-
scapes he's been able to combine that
simplification and representation with
'abstraction in the most magical way."
Whether inspired by fields or flowers,
painting petunias, irises, birch trees or
apple blossoms, the paintings depict up-
close views, revealing the intensity of
color and light in nature, says Hilberry.
Katz's trademark larger-than-life per-
spective, she adds, allows a viewer to
become enveloped in the artist's vision
-- often flowers appear floating in mid-
air, as a result of Katz's fondness for
enlarging the subject matter then crop-
ping it closely.
"What's interesting about Alex is that
he refuses to give away any information
that's too explicit," says Hilberry. "He
allows for the mystery of it all. It's only
seemingly cool, seemingly simple. That's
the veneer.
"I wouldn't call it flatness," she says.
"There is a holding to the picture plane.
He has a wonderful way of pulling paint
across the surface so the viewer can feel
the sensuousness of the paint. He's look-
ing at the same subject matter that has
infatuated painters through the centuries,
but the result is uncommonly beautiful
and, again, very much his own." ❑

'Alex Katz" is on view at the
Susanne Hilberry Gallery, 700
Livernois, in Ferndale, through
March 5. For more information,
call (248) 541-4700.

