Appendix B Paul Katz Analysis

In early September of 2017, I was roaming aimlessly in an auction house. Suddenly, after a few hours of mundane and boring browsing on a rainy day, something caught my eye, resting against a wall displaying a collection of grandfather clocks. With no visible name, a small work in a large setting boasted an alarming first impression and just enough hints for one to surmise its background. With no knowledge or literature accompanying it, the art alone gave hints of its creator, medium, components, inspiration, and possible message.

As depicted in Appendix B, the untitled piece tells us it was brought into the world by a Paul Katz on May 22nd, 2001. Kneeling in front of it at first, I did not recognize the artist’s name as a local or very famous person. I decided to investigate the elusive name and learned that Paul Katz could be, according to Joy Wallens-Penford, the

He “painstakingly covered with the text of poetry that has moved him to render it, word by careful word, in a new dimension of expression,” which were “craftily arranged” and simply intended to be beautiful, not foreboding or particulary multi-faceted (Wallens-Penford). He may have also enjoyed using a certain shade of red over black, as depicted by other artwork that may be attributed to him (Artsy). His work is clearly surreal in its psychological effects as opposed to its upfront presentation, instilling a sense of wonder and pondering in appreciators (Fiero). The piece caused many that I have shown it to to follow drastically different tangents in thought in trying to decipher its hidden meaning, each with personal relevance, as I have found in mine. I find it valuable that one work is able to be so thought-provoking and mysterious. Even with this understood, given this is a true match, we do not necessarily know Katz’s intentions regarding this specific, unnamed