Kitaj: Pictures and Conversations

by Julián Ríos

Pictures and Conversations is both a conversation with and a meditation on the work of the American-born painter R.B. Kitaj, who has lived more than half his life in London.
Together novelist, Julian Rios, and painter, R.B. Kitaj, in an exuberant exchange of wordplay and allusion, look at the formative experiences that lie behind the extraordinary eclecticism of Kitaj's art. They consider the influence on his work of artists ancient and modern, his fascination with the grim underside of city life, and the huge inspiration he has found in literature and the cinema. They also explore his increasing awareness of his Jewish identity and the quest to comprehend through his painting the conflicts and troubles of his century.

278 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2007

About the author

Julián Ríos (born Vigo, Galicia, 1941) is a Spanish writer, most frequently classified as a postmodernist, whom Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes has called "the most inventive and creative" of Spanish-language writers. His first two books were written à deux with Octavio Paz.

His best known work, experimental and heavily influenced by the verbal inventiveness of James Joyce, was published in 1983 under the title Larva.

Julián Ríos currently lives and works in France, on the outskirts of Paris