Early Years and the Prairie Landscape Alex Katz, born July 24, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, wasn’t initially destined for a life immersed in art. His early years were shaped by the experiences of an émigré family – his father, Odesa-born Dmytro Kurelek, had lost a factory during the upheaval following the Russian Revolution – and a move to St. Albans, Queens, in 1928. This shift profoundly impacted him; he grew up amidst a predominantly Ukrainian community, an experience that would later deeply inform his artistic vision. Katz’s childhood was marked by a quiet intensity, a sense of being som…