Kitaj, R. B., << kiht EYE, >> (1932-2007), was an American painter who worked for much of his career in England. Kitaj’s work has been associated with the Pop Art movement. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, he championed figurative painting when abstract art was the dominant style. His paintings typically emphasize broad areas of flat color and resemble comic strips. His style reflects the strong influence of French art of the late 1800’s as well as his Jewish heritage.
Ronald Brooks was born in Cleveland on Oct. 29, 1932. He took the surname Kitaj from his stepfather. He was a merchant seaman from 1951 to 1955, then served in the United States Army until 1957. He moved to England in 1957 on a scholarship to study art at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University. From 1960 to 1962, he studied at London’s Royal College of Art. He taught at the Camberwell School of Art and the Slade School of Art during the 1960’s, before becoming a full-time painter.
In 1996, Kitaj caused controversy by exhibiting Sandra One in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in London. The painting is a strong personal statement about his wife, the artist Sandra Fisher, who died of a brain hemorrhage in September 1994. The work includes the words “The critic kills,” a reference to the artist’s belief that adverse criticism of an exhibition of his work in 1994 contributed to the death of his wife. In 1997, Kitaj left England and returned to the United States. Kitaj died on Oct. 21, 2007.
