For the past four decades Alex Katz has worked diligently and brilliantly to depict in a new and individual way the human face and figure, the figure in nature, and the landscapes in which he has lived. His powerful but accessible paintings have made him a major force in contemporary art and have won him great international critical acclaim.

Katz's stunning works, sometimes as large as twenty feet across, can be found in almost every leading art museum in the United States as well as in many collections abroad.

This retrospective study is the definitive survey. The author, a distinguished art critic, teacher, and historian, has known Katz almost as long as the artist has been painting, and the two worked together to select the paintings, prints, and sculptural cutouts that are reproduced here. Sandler traces the artist's upbringing, his education in art, and his influences among other visual artists, writers, and especially poets.