Alex Katz. Photograph by Gillian Laub for The New Yorker
For the past 21 years the TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art’s contemporary art auction and gala at the Rachofsky House in Dallas has raised money for both the Dallas Museum of Art and amfAR, a major foundation for AIDS research. This year, TWO x TWO’s featured artist is Alex Katz, the acclaimed portrait and landscape painter who is now 91 years old. At this year’s TWO x TWO event, Katz will receive amfAR’s Award of Excellence for Artistic Contributions to the Fight Against AIDS. The award is given in recognition of Katz’s generous support of amfAR programs and the event will be held on Saturday, October 26 at the Rachofsky House.
As we reported here when the release of a book celebrating the fundraiser was announced, TWO x TWO has raised more than $75 million in its 20 year history, adding about $9 million last year. Contributing to that total sum was a record-breaking TWO x TWO auction sale of Wade Guyton’s UNTITLED, 2008, which sold for $2.6 million at the October 2014 auction.
In the press release announcing Katz’s selection, philanthropist Howard Rachofsky states: “As TWO x TWO enters its third decade and with the transition to our new leadership with Lisa and John Runyon at the helm, the choice to ask Alex was an easy one and unanimous. Alex Katz is an anchor in the contemporary art community and his influence on young painters will undoubtedly continue for generations to come.”
Past TWO x TWO artist honorees include Dana Schutz, Jonas Wood, Laura Owens, Ellsworth Kelly, Wade Guyton, Luc Tuymans, Richard Phillips, Mark Grotjahn, Christopher Wool, Peter Doig, Jim Hodges, Elizabeth Peyton, Tom Friedman, Cecily Brown, Julian Schnabel, April Gornik, Ed Ruscha, Joel Shapiro, and Robert Rauschenberg.
For more on TWO x TWO, please go here.
