Hockney's career has had its ups and downs, but now as we find ourselves with over forty years of work to look back upon, we can start to judge his importance as an artist. The cruder work of Hockney eventually straddled many different ideas, and become known as a man obsessed with historical roots of painting. He has studied perspective and how the eye sees. Hockney authored a definitive book that explored the draftsmanship of old masters, attempting to explain how such realistic masterpieces were produced using mechanical tools. Mostly Hockney is loved for his minimalist style. His paintings speak of moments, or places as a poem, editing out extraneous subject matter. If you take a look at 'Two Men in a Shower," you will see exactly that and nothing else. Two men posed behind a shower curtain, the water falling down upon them. And in the background a pastel orange/pink wash across the rest of the canvas. There is almost no depth to the composition, the tiles of the bathroom, or whatever else may have been in this space is taken away. We are left with a meditative moment, serene with the actions taking place on the canvas.

Just as Hockney pared down everything to a minimal degree, Katz did so but with an eye not towards telling any story, but instead in the direction of capturing an almost plastic representation of the figure. These two artists have enjoyed a remarkable run of success, and Katz has had his share of iconic paintings. But Katz pretty much stayed with a tried and true recipe he knew the public clamored for. Katz never looks back in history for inspiration or examines his contemporaries for new ideas. A Katz from 1965 is pretty much the same as a Katz from 2000.

The images here are not indicative of Hockney's scope as an artist. These are just the a few examples of paintings that deal with Currin.

These are images comprising forty years of Katz' career. You can see that he maintains a singular sucessful mat style from one work to the next.

Hockney, Man In Shower

Hockney, Sprinkler

Hockney, A Bigger Splah

Hockney, Two Men in a shower

Hockney, a water color from 2003

Hockney, Sleeping Man

Katz, Ada in Hat Lithografie 1990

Alex Katz, Grey Umbrella, 1978

Alex Katz: Scott und John, Olauf Leinwand 1966

Katz, Berlin,2001

Tara, Alex Katz, 2003