R.B. Kitaj: How to reach 67 in Jewish art : 100 pictures

by R.B. Kitaj

SIGNED COLLECTIBLE AS NEW FIRST EDITION softcover, clean text, solid binding, NO remainders NOT ex-library slight shelfwear / storage-wear; WE SHIP FAST. Carefully packed and quickly sent. 201512285 With a laid-in letter signed "Kitaj" to Michael Andre Bernstein in Kensington, California. SIGNED "for M.A.B., best, from R.B.K." Kitaj was recognised as being one of the world's leading draftsmen, almost on a par with, or compared to, Degas. Indeed, he was taught drawing at Oxford by Percy Horton, whom Kitaj claimed was a pupil of Walter Sickert, who was a pupil of Degas; and the teacher of Degas studied under Ingres. Meanwhile, Edgar Wind encouraged him to become a 'Warburgian artist'.[13] His more complex compositions build on his line work using a montage practice, which he called 'agitational usage'. Kitaj often depicts disorienting landscapes and impossible 3D constructions, with exaggerated and pliable human forms. He often assumes a detached outsider point of view, in conflict with dominant historical narratives. This is best portrayed by his masterpiece "The Autumn of Central Paris" (1972–73), wherein philosopher Walter Benjamin is portrayed, as both the orchestrator and victim of historical madness. The futility of historical progress creates a disjointed architecture that is maddening to deconstruct.[citation needed] He staged a major exhibition at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1965, and a retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. in 1981. He selected paintings for an exhibition, "The Artist's Eye", at the National Gallery, London in 1980. In 1981 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1984. Kitaj has come to identify most strongly with the central European Jewish writer Franz Kafka, and with his sense of estrangement and of hidden mysteries. We recommend selecting Priority Mail wherever available. (No shipping to Mexico, Brazil or Italy.)

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Ronald Brooks Kitaj (1932-2007)