Alex Katz is an American figurative artist who is well known for his large paintings, whose bold simplicity and heightened colours are now seen as precursors to Pop Art. Katz’s paintings are divided almost equally into the genres of portraiture and landscape. Beginning in the late 1950s, he developed a technique of painting on cut panels, first of wood, then aluminum, calling them “cutouts”. Katz’ work is said to have influenced many following painters, such as David Salle, Peter Halley and Richard Prince.