L.A. Louver gallery presents R.B. Kitaj. Works by R.B. Kitaj.
R.B. Kitaj artist page, L.A. Louver gallery
In 1985, art historian and critic Marco Livingstone published one of the earliest monographs on American painter R. B. Kitaj. The volume appeared roughly midway through Kitaj’s career (he was born in 1932, and his very earliest works date from the late fifties) and offered significant documentation of a complex artist. Over the next two …
Ronald B. Kitaj, american artists working in London, founder of the School of London:
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There are very few painters whose work makes me gasp; Kitaj is one. He was one of that highly influential group of RCA students from the late 50's/early 60's that included Hockney, Peter Blake, Allen Jones, Pat Caulfield, and Derek Boshier (amongst others). Some of the liveliest work since the glory days of Matisse. I was at school when these guys were at the RCA, but their influence even reached as far as the backwaters of Cambridgeshire. In 1961 my wise Art teacher (Norman Wadey) took me down to London in his tiny MG to see the 'Young Contemporaries' show at The Whitechapel Art Gallery, at which all the above were exhibiting. The young 15 year old Cro was literally astounded. I'd never seen anything like it; it was like being born again into a whole new unknown world of painting. Kitaj's work shone like a beacon, and his 'Jewish Philosophy' subject matter a total revelation. Kitaj was blessed with superb draughtsmanship, and rare intellect. He was an exceptional colourist and created complex and challenging compositions. He was top of the class. Kitaj left us in 2007, unfortunately to suicide. At his Tate retrospective in 1994 he had been unfairly savaged by the press as being a pretentious name-dropping Yankee poseur, and he moved back to the USA in disgust. No doubt this attack, and the death of his wife (the painter Sandra Fisher) led to his demise. Thank you for all your wonderful work Mr Kitaj; I love you. RIP.
L.A. Louver gallery presents R.B. Kitaj: Los Angeles Pictures. Works by R.B. Kitaj.
View album on Yandex Disk
One thing that has bugged critics of Kitaj is that his work can be simultaneously accessible and full of allusions.
Art and Artists, Paintings, Painters, Prints, Printmakers, Illustration, Illustrators
The weight of history hovers over this American postwar figurative artist, with an increasing focus on the experience of Jews
Posts about R. B. Kitaj written by zoowithoutanimals
When the painter was savaged by critics and blamed for his wife's death, he left the UK. Tim Adams traces the story and asks: will two new shows finally rehabilitate him?
The American-born painter R.B. Kitaj’s reputation as an artist rests chiefly on a sequence of perhaps twenty fully realized paintings. Their complex,
Kitaj, Ohio Gang
L.A. Louver gallery presents R.B. Kitaj: Collages and Prints, 1964-1975. Works by R.B. Kitaj.
L.A. Louver’s exhibition of early prints and collages by the late R.B. Kitaj highlights both his creative passion and the quirks of prints as a medium.
Later this month two shows together form the first British retrospective of the work of RB Kitaj since his suicide in 2007
