Critical Kitaj (Issues in Art History Series)

The 1994 Kitaj retrospective at the Tate Gallery generated a great deal of furor and discussion, only confirming this artist's stature as a major figure in the postwar international arts scene. In over thirty years as a successful and respected artist, Kitaj has explored the relationship between the visual and the poetic, taking references from high literature and popular culture to develop an iconography of post-Holocaust Jewish identity in his work. In his search for personal and artistic identity the subjects of his work and life have taken him on a literal and figurative journey via Vienna, New York, Paris, London, Frankfurt and Los Angeles from youthful bohemianism and studied anarchism to the discovery of his Jewishness. His subject matter has not between easy, drawing inspiration and alluding to such diverse sources as Walter Benjamin, R. P. Blackmur, Ezra Pound, and John Ford.