WATERVILLE, ME.- Alex Katz's long-standing commitment to the Colby College Museum of Art and the state of Maine, where he has had a summer home since 1954, is represented in a forthcoming exhibition that showcases recent gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation. Contemporary Art at the Colby College Museum of Art: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation is on view July 14 - October 28, 2007.

The exhibition presents gifts in a variety of media from the Alex Katz Foundation by some of the leading artists of the past half century. Artists represented include Will Ryman in sculpture; Rudy Burckhardt, Justen Ladda, and Evelyn Hofer in photography; Julian Opie and Chuck Close in printmaking; and paintings by Jennifer Bartlett, Robert Bordo, Richard Bosman, Francesco Clemente, Michele Francis, Adolph Gottlieb, Gary Hume, Raoul De Keyser, Julian Lethbridge, Robert Moskowitz, Jan Muller, Elizabeth Murray, Ellen Phelan, Jack Pierson, Murray Reich, Dana Schutz, Susan Shatter, Philip Taaffe, and John Zurier.

Katz, a prominent figure in contemporary art known for his large-scale figurative paintings, founded the Alex Katz Foundation, which supports living artists by providing museums the means to purchase their work. Through the foundation he has given more than 50 works of art valued at more than $1.5 million to the Colby College Museum of Art. His deep and personal commitment to contemporary art and artists is evident in the range of work that he has given, from emerging to internationally recognized artists. Including a variety of styles and media, the Katz gift offers a view of some of the most interesting and influential work from the mid-20th century to the present.

The Alex Katz Foundation - The Alex Katz Foundation was founded by Alex Katz in 2004. The majority of the gifts are the work of living artists, but the foundation has also donated exceptional works, and bodies of work, by deceased artists. Recipients of gifts have been the Colby College Museum of Art, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Besides the artists represented in the Colby exhibition, the foundation has given works by Sherrie Levine, Yvonne Jacquette, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Philip Pearlstein, David Salle, Rackstraw Downes and others.