R.B. Kitaj was one of the pre-eminent figure painters working in post-war London. Despite the acclaim he achieved in his lifetime, since his death in 2007 he has not been widely exhibited in London and many areas of art historical research into his work await exploration. His paintings and drawings, especially those made in his Los Angeles period between 1997 and 2007, warrant more detailed appraisal than they have yet received. Outstanding research topics reach far beyond a consideration of his source materials and include his ambiguous interposition between modernity and post-modernity, his self-conscious use of eclectic styles as a vehicle for meaning, and the varied networks he connected with, from the swinging London of his friends David Hockney and Mick Jagger to the Beat scene of California. In short, Kitaj and his work are long overdue for reconsideration.
In collaboration with Piano Nobile, the Courtauld Research Forum will contribute to that process of reconsideration. Coinciding with Piano Nobile’s exhibition R.B. Kitaj: London to Los Angeles the event will include a screening of Colin Wiggins’s film about Kitaj, made in 2001 to accompany the National Gallery exhibition Kitaj in the Aura of Cézanne and Other Masters. The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Colin Wiggins, former Special Projects Curator at the National Gallery; Jennifer Ramkalawon, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Nordic Graphic Art at the British Museum and author of Kitaj Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné; and Marinka Ellidge, one of the artist’s sitters.
Colin Wiggins worked for over thirty years as Head of Education and Special Projects Curator at the National Gallery. He was responsible for the Associate Artist scheme and in 2001 he curated the exhibition Kitaj in the Aura of Cézanne and Other Masters.
Marinka Ellidge was a friend of R.B. Kitaj’s and one of his life models in the seventies and early eighties.
Jennifer Ramkalawon is Curator of Modern and Contemporary Nordic Graphic Art at the British Museum and author of Kitaj Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné.
Luke Farey, who will moderate the discussion, is a specialist in twentieth-century British art and has been Piano Nobile’s Researcher since 2018.
This event is organised in collaboration between Piano Nobile, the East Wing Biennial and their exhibition VS1: Embodiment, and The Courtauld Research Forum.
