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Alex Katz met Ada Del Moro at the opening of his exhibit at the Tanager Gallery in New York in October 1957. They were married four months later, and it was around this time that Katz began to focus on painting portraits. All of Katz's portraits involve a degree of idealization and generalization, particularly those depicting Ada.
Over the course of their marriage, Katz has created over 250 portraits of Ada. Sometimes she is large-scale in a close-up; other times she appears multiplied in the same painting. Though he captures some elements of her face, his work often bears little resemblance to her. When asked whether these portraits of Ada actually look like her, Katz replied, "Nothing does."
Katz's distinctly recognizable style evokes the smooth, flattened aesthetics of advertising billboards and film, taking inspiration from American culture and society.