The long overdue retrospective of Alex Katz, the American figurative artist, has finally opened at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan. Katz is best known as the painter who did all those portraits and landscapes defined with a flatness of color and form, economy of line and coolness of emotion. He remained true to himself and his style and never gave way to the siren call of abstract expression in the 1950s.

Katz was born in 1927 and is still alive, well and painting in his SoHo studio at the ripe old age of age 95 and if that doesn’t inspire you, nothing will. “CBS Sunday Morning” did a segment on him recently and he comes across as vibrant, humble and charming, still working seven days a week. This miracle of a man is an exemplar of how to be successful, famous and happy so let’s take a moment to de-construct his life and uncover his secrets.

atz was born to a Jewish family whose father was a Russian émigré who lost his factory during the Soviet revolution and his mother was a well-known Russian actress. Katz was raised in St. Albans, Queens, and both of his parents were creative and somewhat eccentric. He was educated at Woodrow Wilson High School, where he split his time between academics and art.

After a stint in the Armed Services, he applied to Cooper Union and to his surprise he was admitted. He felt ill-prepared to compete with fellow students who had already attended art prep schools in high school but he persisted to work on his art and after graduation he studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

With this foundation he returned to New York and began his quest to survive as an artist. In the 1950s, Manhattan was a hot bed of creativity with poets, artists, dancers and jazz musicians collaborating and hanging together. I think Katz’s humble, friendly, unassuming manner allowed him to manage this world very well and he formed long-term relationships with the likes of dancers like Paul Taylor, poets like Frank O’Hara and a variety of art critics and jazz musicians.

Another fortunate moment for Alex Katz was when he met and fell in love with Ada Del Moro, who was a force in her own right. Ada had studied biology at New York University and within a short time after they met they were married. I think she was a pivotal force in his life not only functioning as his muse (he painted at least 1,000 portraits of her) but also as an ongoing support system.

Alex Katz’s work is so well-loved and influential for many reasons. His use of flat bold colors, the lack of details and the simplicity of his canvases make them extremely accessible to most viewers. He once said his goal was to make art that would be enjoyed by the kids in Queens who he grew up with. But more than that, I think Katz’s greatest secret was how remarkably steadfast he was in character. He loved and painted portraits of his wife Ada for more than 60 years. He was steadfast to his own vision and style and resisted the influences of abstract expressionism, pop art and color field painting. He stuck with portraiture and landscape painting, ever faithful to his own unique, bold, colorful, simple, human style.

So do yourself a favor, get to the Guggenheim and gaze in wonder upon the work of this humble genius who managed to live a life of love, joy and humility and was able to translate this to canvases that have both a coolness and a warmth. He has somehow combined Jeff Koons’ mastery of simplicity with Andy Warhol’s cool hipster attitude and Picasso’s longevity, all this by a kid raised in Queens.