Incollect Magazine - Issue 2

2022 Incollect Magazine 37 works. He also sold out of his house in Woodbridge, Connecticut from 1996, when he and Penny were married, until 2018 when they purchased and renovated the property in Madison, where they built the dedicated sales gallery. In their new home, they collaborated with their design team, mixing together the best of their Folk Art collection assembled over many decades, with modern and contemporary furniture by Florence Knoll, George and Mira Nakashima, Robert Hausmann and Mies van de Rohe along with artworks by artists including Bill Traylor, Anni Albers, Jacob Lawrence and the Japanese abstract expressionist Kenzo Okado. Today, Katz is well known to viewers of the PBS television series Antiques Roadshow, where for 18 years he has been a hugely popular consulting specialist for Folk Art, radiating personal magnetism and dispensing profound commentary in nearly equal measure. His love and respect for the art form is infectious and completely genuine. When I visited, he and his wife and business partner Penny had just returned from taping a new show at the Filoli Gardens in Woodside, outside of San Francisco. The following week they were headed to Shelburne, Vermont for another taping. “You never know what is going to show up on the Folk Art table, which is the joy of doing this — it’s always a surprise.” Katz specializes in 3-dimensional objects, sculpture mostly, a subject on which he is widely considered to be an expert. He’s currently putting finishing touches on orchestrating (for a client) the donation of a multi-million dollar weathervane to a prominent New York City museum where it will be viewed by millions of people each year. “I’ve handled 2-dimensional objects like great samplers and portraits but I never wanted to build my brand around that. I am drawn to the sculptural field.” The living room’s suite of lounge chairs by Swiss mid- century designer Robert Haussmann are generously scaled but low in profile, to ensure uninterrupted sight lines to the richly patinated Folk Art treasures. Above the fireplace, a circa 1880 needlework panel from Pennsylvania shares the room with a carved and paint-decorated “Cubist” blanket chest by Alexander Couard.