Silk tie manufactured by Ratti, Italy, published for the benefit of UNICEF by Cultural Ties.
Alex Katz was born in Brooklyn in 1927. He studied at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York and then at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpturein Maine, from where he graduated in 1950.His work is characterised by flatly painted, dramatically cropped, oversized heads and enigmatic landscapes which recall movies, advertisements and billboards. They are big on style. Katz lives and works in New York and Maine.

Cultural Ties – a celebration of cultural diversity, was a global project and the brain child of London art dealer Kapil Jariwala. The brief was for 77 artists from around the world to design neck ties. A limited edition of 300 of each tie were produced for sale worldwide via selected retail outlets, gallery shops and the internet.
It was hoped that the project would raise $1 million for UNICEF, in particular for their clean water programme. The Italian firm Ratti, a major producer of fine textiles for the fashion world, was chosen and the artists’ designs were transformed into shimmering, sensual velvets, taffeta and densely woven jacquard.