Kitaj

the long version

"R. B. Kitaj is recognized as a modern master whose powerful, controversial and highly personal paintings, pastels and drawings reflect his unfashionable commitment to the human figure as a subject, and his complex involvement with the art of the past, with political and social issues, and with his own Jewish identity." "Marco Livingstone's monograph on Kitaj is based on a series of interviews and letters between the artist and the author, and provides full and up-to-date documentation of Kitaj's life and work. The artist himself has participated actively in the design of the book, and has written for it a series of articulate and revealing 'prefaces' to his own paintings." "For this expanded third edition, the author has written a new chapter surveying Kitaj's work in the 1990s, a tragic period dominated by his now famous confrontation with the critics of his 1994 retrospective exhibition, the subsequent death of his wife the artist Sandra Fisher, and his eventual return to the United States. This text is complemented by a new plate section illustrating 22 recent works, and three additional 'prefaces' written by the artist."--Jacket.