R. B. Kitaj
A Life (B), 1975
This print features the encounter between an alluring woman dressed in red, and a man with his back …
Among the most significant post-war painters whose work and writings helped to define the School of London, R.B. Kitaj produced complex, boldly expressive compositions dense with references to art, literature, and, most significantly, Judaism. As he explained: “The Jewish question, in its infinity, is the central drama and romance of my life and art.” Drawing enduring inspiration from the works of Paul Cézanne, one of his favorite artists, as well as intellectuals like Hannah Arendt and Walter Benjamin, Kitaj approached art-making with a combination of formal and conceptual rigor. His ambitious paintings and prints are precisely composed and resolutely, though loosely, figurative. Ranging from deeply personal self-portraits and vignettes from his own life to nuanced explorations of history, politics, and ideas, all of his works convey his lust for expression and his passion for intellection.
This print features the encounter between an alluring woman dressed in red, and a man with his back to the viewer. The light of a streetlamp is beautifully imitated with speckled texture that silhouettes the man.
The composition of A Life is based on Kitaj’s pastel work Femme de Peuple II, and a pulp novel’s …
Among the most significant post-war painters whose work and writings helped to define the School of London, R.B. Kitaj produced complex, boldly expressive compositions dense with references to art, literature, and, most significantly, Judaism. As he explained: “The Jewish question, in its infinity, is the central drama and romance of my life and art.” Drawing enduring inspiration from the works of Paul Cézanne, one of his favorite artists, as well as intellectuals like Hannah Arendt and Walter Benjamin, Kitaj approached art-making with a combination of formal and conceptual rigor. His ambitious paintings and prints are precisely composed and resolutely, though loosely, figurative. Ranging from deeply personal self-portraits and vignettes from his own life to nuanced explorations of history, politics, and ideas, all of his works convey his lust for expression and his passion for intellection.
