Ronald Brooks Kitaj
American, 1932-2007
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1932, R.B. (Ronald Brooks) Kitaj is considered a key figure in European and American contemporary painting. While his work has been considered controversial, he is regarded as a master draftsman with a commitment to figurative art. His highly personal paintings and drawings reflect his deep interest in history; cultural, social and political ideologies; and issues of identity.
Among his various honors are election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1982, and election to the Royal Academy in 1985 (the first American since John Singer Sargent to receive this honor.)
Numerous retrospective exhibitions of his work include shows at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.; The Jewish Museum, Berlin; The Jewish Museum, London; and the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Germany.
Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and Troy, New York, Kitaj joined the Merchant Marines in 1949.
In 1950, between sailings, he attended classes at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. He went on to study drawing at the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna, Austria.
Kitaj moved to Oxford, England in 1957, and enrolled at The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford.
In 1959, Kitaj was accepted into Royal College of Art, London, where he befriended classmate David Hockney. Upon graduation from the RCA, Kitaj signed with Marlborough Fine Art, London, where he had his first solo exhibition in 1963. His art career began in earnest, and he found critical acclaim alongside commercial success.
A second solo show followed at Marlborough Gallery, New York, in 1965, and he sold “The Ohio Gang” to The Museum of Modern Art.
In 1969, Kitaj taught for a year at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In 1976, he coined the term “School of London” in an essay he wrote as curator of the polemical exhibition, “The Human Clay,” at the Hayward Gallery, London. The term, though loose, continues to define a group of stylistically diverse artists, including Kitaj, who were working in London at that time focusing on figural representation.
In 1981, he spent a year in Paris, France, where he focused on drawing and use of pastel.
In 1994, the Tate Gallery, London, organized a major retrospective of Kitaj’s work. Hostile and personal attacks from some critics led to what Kitaj referred to as the “Tate War.” The exhibition subsequently traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Kitaj moved to Los Angeles, California, and continued to exhibit with Marlborough Fine Art and the Marlborough Gallery, New York.
In 2001 the National Gallery London organized a solo exhibition of paintings: “R.B. Kitaj In the Aura of Cezanne and Other Masters.” Kitaj focused on his “late style” in his Yellow Studio in Westwood and died in 2007.
His gift of his archive to the UCLA Library Special Collections was celebrated with exhibitions at the Skirball Cultural Center and UCLA’s Young Research Library.to
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Creator: Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Original Vintage Sport Poster Munich Summer Olympics 1972 Swimming RB Kitaj
By Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Located in London, GB
Original vintage sports poster for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich - Olympische Spiele Munchen - designed by the painter and printmaker Kitaj (Ronald Brooks Kitaj; 1932-2007) depi...
Category
1970s German Vintage Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Materials
Paper
R.B. Kitaj, Civic Virtue All Over The Floor, 53/100, Screenprint, 1967
By Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Located in San Francisco, CA
ABOUT
R.B. Kitaj, Civic Virtue All Over The Floor
Screenprint, Serigraphy.
Edition of 100. 53/100.
Signed in pencil lower left.
Unframed.
CREATOR R.B. Kitaj, United Kingdom. ...
Category
Mid-20th Century British Folk Art Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Materials
Paper
R.B. Kitaj, The cultural value of fear, distrust and hypochondria, 1964-1966
By Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Located in San Francisco, CA
ABOUT
R.B. Kitaj, The cultural value of fear, distrust and hypochondria. Screenprint
Edition of 70
Signed in pencil lower right.
Unframed.
Color lithograph on different types of pa...
Category
Mid-20th Century British Folk Art Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Materials
Paper
R.B. Kitaj, The Adding Machine, 63/70 Screenprint 1972
By Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Located in San Francisco, CA
ABOUT
R.B. Kitaj, The Adding Machine, Edition of 70, Signed and numbered 63/70 in pencil lower right. Unframed. Printed by Kelpra Studios, London, with their ink stamp on the back.
...
Category
Mid-20th Century British Folk Art Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Materials
Paper
R.B. Kitaj, Turk Sib: The Most Important Film Ever Made, Signed 1972
By Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Located in San Francisco, CA
ABOUT
R.B. Kitaj, Turk Sib: The Most Important Film Ever Made, Screenprint
Edition of 70
Signed and numbered 63/70 in pencil lower right.
Unframed.
CREATOR R.B. Kitaj, United ...
Category
Mid-20th Century British Folk Art Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Materials
Paper
R.B. Kitaj, Cutie, 17/70, Screenprint 1974
By Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Located in San Francisco, CA
ABOUT
R.B. Kitaj, Cutie 1974
Edition of 70
Signed and numbered 17/70 in pencil lower left.
Unframed.
CREATOR R.B. Kitaj, United Kingdom.
DATE OF MANUFACTURE c.1974
MA...
Category
Mid-20th Century British Folk Art Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Materials
Paper
R.B. Kitaj, Portrait, 13/70 Color Silkscreen 1970-1974
By Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Located in San Francisco, CA
ABOUT
R.B. Kitaj, Portrait, Edition of 70, Color silkscreen. Signed and numbered 13/70 in pencil upper right. Unframed.
CREATOR R.B. Kitaj, United Kingdom and USA.
DATE O...
Category
Mid-20th Century British Folk Art Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Materials
Paper
Original Vintage London Underground Poster Michelangelo Victoria Albert Museum
By Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Located in London, GB
Original vintage London Underground poster - Find Michelangelo at the V&A nearest station South Kensington - featuring a sketch pasti...
Category
1990s British Ronald Brooks Kitaj
Materials
Paper
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Olympic Games Munich 1972 Limited Edition Signed by Artist Jacob Lawrence
Located in Pewsey, GB
Rare Olympic Games Munich 1972 Limited Edition 'Poster entitled 'Five Black Athletes in a Relay
Race' signed and numbered by Jacob Lawrence
Dimensions:
Sheet Size: Length 109.5 × 69.5 cm
Image Size: Length: 87 × 64 cm
Edition Size: 200
Edition Number: 24 marked in pencil by Jacob Lawrence
Signed: Jacob Lawrence 71 in pencil by Jacob Lawrence
Serigraph – Screenprint
Printed words on the left hand corner of the sheet read as follows:
© Edition Olympia 1972 Gmbh 1971
Dietz Officin Lengmoos
Description
Bold colours fresh and vibrant as when originally issued
Overall condition: Very good for age
A minor tear at the top edge has been repaired and the poster has been given a conservation wash by one of UK’s leading paper conservators, in the main, to remove soluble pollutants, which if left untreated in a poster, in particular, one printed more than 50 years ago would accelerate its degradation. This first class conservational treatment will ensure that the poster would retain its present condition if professionally framed with museum-quality glass and not
exposed to direct sunlight or put into long-term storage following the specialist guidelines for the storage of posters and prints.
Jacob Lawrence was one of a number of artists who were invited to design posters for the 1972 Olympic Games held in Munich. He was first non-white artist to commissioned by an Olympic Games Committee.
Lawrence created an image to commemorate the involvement of black athletes in the Olympic Games, as track was the field in which they had traditionally excelled.
This striking poster depicts five black runners with grimacing faces take giant strides around a large, curving track as they head toward the finish line.
They hold batons in their hands to show that they are competing in a relay race.
Each athlete is shown with his arms, legs, and head in a slightly different position, one has his head back and his right leg stretched forward, almost straight.
Lawrence used bold colours to depict the runners' stylised faces and legs as well as the repeated shapes of the track.
He combined the flat, simplified shapes and empty spaces of modernism with silhouetted figures and the rhythmic patterns and colours of Harlem scenes. He labelled his pictorial style 'dynamic cubism'.
Lawrence's poster embraces several themes:
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b) memories of the African American athlete, Jesse Owens...
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1970s "Fanfare" Screenprint by Frank Rowland
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A striking limited edition op art serigraph by American artist Frank Rowland (1927-2012) in the hard edge style. An abstract geometric composition in red, orange, and yellow against ...
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Alberto Giacometti Framed Black and White Limited Lithograph "Annette", 1964
By Alberto Giacometti
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A wonderful sketched lithograph by famed Swiss artists/sculptor Alberto Giacometti.
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KEITH HARING - Screenprint offset of Andy Mouse 2 signed numbered dated 1986
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Very pretty, colorful and pop silkscreen print of Andy Mouse, Andy Warhol + Mickey Mouse, represents the famous mouse with a wig and sunglasses which are Warhol's distinctive attribu...
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Framed Lithograph Landscape with View of the Lake and Boats Signed
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20% Off
H 26.13 in W 33.63 in D 1.13 in
1964 Ellsworth Kelly Lithograph For Derrière le Miroir Magazine, Galerie Maeght
By Ellsworth Kelly
Located in Doraville, GA
A color lithograph double leaf for the French art magazine, Derrière le Miroir, number 149, designed by Ellsworth Kelly (American, 1923 – 2015). This unsigned three-color lithograph ...
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Josef Albers Signed Abstract Screenprint "Ascension"
By Josef Albers
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Abstract Serigraph Poster Entitled "1972 Munich Olympics" by Josef Albers
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Previously Available Items
R. B. Kitaj Untitled from Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
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Etching and aquatint: sheet diameter, circa 45.5 cm
Edition of 175, signed and numbered
Published in January 1984 by The Arion Press, San Francisco
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Ronald Brooks Kitaj furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
Ronald Brooks Kitaj furniture are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of paper and are designed with extraordinary care. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider furniture by Martin Parr, Robert E. McGinnis, and Peter Strausfeld. Prices for Ronald Brooks Kitaj furniture can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $956 and can go as high as $956, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $956.