ALEX KATZ COLLAGES

(Waterville, ME): (Colby College Museum of Art), 2005. First printing. Near fine.. First edition of this handsomely illustrated catalogue, inscribed with thanks by Katz to poet Kenward Elmslie, a lender to the exhibition and a friend and subject of the artist. The majority of Katz's collages date from 1954-1960, belonging to an experimental period in the artist's long career and capturing drama on a small scale: "Their size is intimate but the scale is vast," Frank O'Hara wrote. Their delicacy and "feminine" (so-called) palette, Cohen writes, was taken as a deliberate provocation by Provincetown's roving hordes of hostile Abstract Expressionists, "which to a considerable extent they were." After this half-decade of exploration, Katz made a decisive pivot to contemporary portraiture, a mode which later produced his collaborative "Face of the Poet" project with Ted Berrigan, Gerald Malanga, John Godfrey, Ted Greenwald, Michael Lally, Ann Lauterbach, Alice Notley, John Perreault, Carter Ratcliff, Rene Ricard, Peter Schjeldahl, Tony Towle, Bill Zavatsky, and Kenward Elmslie, to whom this copy is inscribed. A warm and intimate association. 8.25 x 9.25''. Original pictorial boards. No jacket, as issued. Blue endpapers. 179, [1] pages. Inscribed by Alex Katz on half-title page: "Hey Kenward, Many thanks for the loan. best wishes, Alex 12.20.05." Minor bumping and edgewear.