Alex Katz: Moby Dick

Melville’s epic tale of hubris and obsession, gorgeously illustrated by Alex Katz

In 1948, while enrolled in an illustration course at Cooper Union, Alex Katz (born 1927) created twenty-seven pen-and-ink drawings inspired by Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick. Katz, who had first read the book at thirteen years old, was drawn to its experimental and digressive structure. Moby-Dick “doesn’t really have a beginning, a middle, and an end,” he notes; rather, “it’s a big form.” Katz’s whimsical illustrations capture this quality while expressing the early formation of his now highly recognizable style, celebrated for its elegant formal economy.  This slim volume includes the full series of twenty-seven works, accompanied with excerpts from Melville’s novel and a conversation about the drawings between Alex Katz and Sharon Corwin, the Colby Museum’s former Carolyn Muzzy Director and Chief Curator. Approximately 7 inches wide by 9 inches tall. 48 pages.