On November 11 at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, the Paul Taylor Dance Foundation will honor painter Alex Katz, marking yet another chapter in one of the most enduring art-and-dance partnerships.

Katz’s collaboration with choreographer Paul Taylor began in 1960, when the poet and critic Edwin Denby introduced the two for a commission at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. Taylor was redefining the language of movement; Katz, then in his 30s, was already rebelling against what he called the “dark and arty” conventions of modern dance lighting, favoring flat white light and pastel color.

Katz’s current visibility, of course, stretches well beyond the stage. At Gladstone Gallery in New York, he’s showing 11 new paintings based a single road in Maine; Katz has rendered that road in bold orange against a white ground.

Meanwhile, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is hosting “Alex Katz: Theater and Dance,” the first major survey of his...