NEW YORK, NY.- In its second partnership with Art Production Fund (APF), Barneys New York, the luxury specialty retailer, announces Art Production Fund x Alex Katz x Barneys New York, a collaboration with world renowned artist Alex Katz. Consisting of home goods and gift items, the limited-edition collection created exclusively for Barneys New York is available starting in May 2015.
From home goods, including glassware, bedding, and candles, to leather tote bags, clutches, and scarfs, the line features Alex Katzs iconic drawings of black and white florals and portraits of female figures. Retailing from $28 to $1400, the collection is available at the Madison Avenue flagship pop-up shop located in the 9th floor Chelsea Passage home section, as well as in Beverly Hills, Chicago and on
Barneys.com beginning May 1st through September 3rd, 2015.
Barneys New York will donate 25% of all retail sales from the Art Production Fund x Alex Katz x Barneys New York product collection to Art Production Fund, a non-profit founded by Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen and directed by Casey Fremont, which is dedicated to commissioning and producing public art projects.
In addition to the dedicated pop-up shop, Barneys New York is featuring a one-of-a-kind Alex Katz mural spanning all 4 of the flagships famed Madison Avenue windows. The mural, which was created exclusively for this project, is one of the largest works of Katzs career and spans 8ft. x 60 ft. It visually celebrates the partnership between Barneys and Art Production Fund, and includes the funds own Yvonne Force Villareal, Doreen Remen and Casey Fremont; Katzs longtime muse and wife, Ada; and Elizabeth McAvoy, to name a few. Inspired by the large-scale mural, there are 18 original Katz prints displayed in the Madison Avenue store and available for purchase throughout the duration of the project. Also available for sale are a fine-art portfolio and trade book that Alex Katz has created with his son, poet Vincent Katz, published by Bernard Chauveau Éditeur for the occasion of the Barneys collaboration.
Ive been involved in fashion for quite some time and it seems natural to me. Art is supposed to be eternal and fashion is always moving, but Ive learned that art moves just like fashion, said artist Alex Katz. Working with Barneys and APF on this project has allowed me to extend my vision to the public, whether its to a passerby on Madison Avenue or on a dinner table. Its very exciting.
With a career spanning over 60 years, Alex Katz continues to create bold and brilliant work, and we are incredibly honored that he partnered with us on this project, said Barneys New York Creative Director Dennis Freedman. From the monumental mural that he created for the window displays to the development of product, Alex was enthusiastically involved in every single aspect of this collaboration.
APF is honored to be a part of a collaboration that provides the public with greater access to the work of Alex Katz, said APF Co-Founders Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen. The iconic and graphic sensibility of his images makes this wonderful home collection timeless."
This is the second partnership between Barneys New York and Art Production Fund, who collaborated in Summer 2013 to launch an exclusive collection with the Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.
Born in 1927, the Brooklyn-raised artist Alex Katz studied at Cooper Union in 1949 and the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Katz was first exposed to the notion of plein air painting at Skowhegan, which would prove pivotal in his development as a painter and remains a staple of his practices today. Katzs painting style can be characterized by his portrayal of complex groups of figures the social world of painters, poets, critics, and other colleagues that surrounded him. In the 1980s, Katz made a return to landscape in the form of large-scale environmental paintings, and has continued to explore these interests up to the present day. Works by Alex Katz can be found in over 100 public collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Albertina in Vienna. Alex Katz's work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions and nearly 500 group exhibitions internationally since 1951. Brand New and Terrific, an exhibition of works from the 1950s at the Colby College Museum of Art, and This is Now, a retrospective of large-scale landscapes at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, will both open in the Summer of 2015.