Abstract

R. B. Kitaj, who had been one of the major figures in the European painting scene since 1960, was given a retrospective at the Tate Gallery in 1994. This tribute, a great honor for any artist whether living or deceased, resulted in a disastrous reception by the London press. His critics' vitriolic opinions and the painter's responses are summarized in this article. Kitaj, the Diasporist, a term he coined for those like himself whom he sees as marginalized, is too "literary" and too Jewish for British taste. Painting, for Kitaj, who was an American expatriate for forty years, is a personal voyage, and a select sampling of his history canvases reveals his deep attachment and concern for the plights of family members and close friends during the Holocaust. These paintings, as interpreted in this article, indicate how Kitaj belongs to the tradition of the learned painter in an oeuvre devoted to historical remembrance.

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