FLOWER PAINTINGS
In a 1968 interview, Katz described his paintings of flowers as an extension of the cocktail party scenes he often painted. He remarked that the flowers are “all overlapping volumes” like the individuals in his figure groupings, which overlap one another as they advance into the painting’s pictorial space. However, by selecting flowers as a subject he sought to introduce a greater degree of movement in the work without literally representing something in motion, thus focusing on the unfolding form of a rose bud. Indeed, White Roses 9 (2012) offers a composition of volumes and voids that dance across the surface of the canvas.