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Allison Katz Cabbage (and Philip) No. 22 , 2020 Oil on linen, 14 × 14 in. Collection of Philip Coulter
Since its first appearance in 2013, the cabbage has become one of Katz’s most enduring and distinctive motifs. In each iteration, a single cabbage is painted from observation and accompanied, on the right, by the silhouetted profile of her husband’s face. Through this juxtaposition, the humble vegetable becomes an avatar for the subject of a traditional portrait: its “head,” “heart,” and “veins” all analogous to the features of the shadowy, absent sitter. Through the artist’s idiosyncratic brand of humor, the work complicates genres of portraiture and still life and addresses themes of identity and deferral. —HJ
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