R.B.Kitaj was born in America but spent much of his professional life in London. As a student at the Royal College of Art in the early 1960s he became great friends with David Hockney and was initially associated with Pop Art. He subsequently promoted the notion of a School of London as a way of drawing attention to the artists he most admired, becoming associated with Andrews, Auerbach, Bacon, Freud and Kossoff.
His visually striking yet iconographically complex pictures combine a variety of sources including literature, philosophy, movies and art.
Ronald Brooks Kitaj (1932 - 2007)
1932
R. B. Kitaj is born as Ronald Brooks in Cleveland, Ohio
1950 - 1951
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York
1951 - 1954
Studies at the Academy of Fine Art, Vienna
1956 - 1958
U.S. Army of Occupation, AFCE HQ (Armed Forces Central Europe)
1957 - 1959
Ruskin School of Drawing, University of Oxford, where he attended lectures by Edgar Wind and Douglas Cooper
1959 - 1961
Royal College of Art, London
1959 - 1961
Forms lasting friendship with David Hockney
1962 - 1965
Settles in London and teaches at Camberwell and the Slade
1970 - 1971
Teaches at UCLA. Meets Sandra Fisher
1982
Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Honorary Doctorate, University of London
1985
Elected to the Royal Academy
1989
Published First Diasporist Manifesto, translated into German and Hungarian
1991
Honorary Doctorate, Royal College of Art, London
1994
Major retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London.
1995
Wins the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale
Honorary Doctorate, California College of Arts, Oakland
1996
Chevalier in Order of Arts and Letters, Paris
Commissioned portrait of President Bill Clinton for University College, Oxford
Honorary Doctorate, Durham University
1997
Wollaston Award to the best painting in the Summer exhibition, Royal Academy, London
1999
Exhibition at the National Gallery, London: Kitaj In The Aura of Cézanne And Other Masters
Honorary Doctorate, Spertus College, Chicago
2001
Begins to write his Confessions of an Old Jewish Painter
2007
Died in LA home
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2005
R.B. Kitaj: How To Reach 72 In A Jewish Art, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York
2004
Kitaj: Retrato de un Hispanista, Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao, Spain
2003
R. B. Kitaj: Los Angeles Pictures 1998-2003, L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice, California, USA
2002
R. B. Kitaj: A Survey of his Printmaking 1964-2001, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, England
2001 - 2002
Kitaj: In the Aura of Cézanne and Other Masters, National Gallery, London
2000
R.B. Kitaj: How To Reach 67 in Jewish Art, Galeria Marlborough, Madrid, Spain
Paintings; Marlborough Gallery, New York, travelling to Marlborough Monte-Carlo, Monaco
1998
R.B. Kitaj: An American in Europe, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway, travelled to Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Spain Jüdisches Museum de Stadt wien, Wien, Austria, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
1996
Sandra Two, FIAC, Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris, France
1985
R.B. Kitaj, Marlborough Fine Art, London, England, November December
1980
Kitaj: Pastels and Drawings, Marlborough Fine Art, London, England
Selected Group Exhibitions
2008
Violence and Sensation: Fancis Bacon and the Remaking of Appearance, James Hyman Gallery, London
2007 - 2008
Paintings and Sculpture, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York
2007
A Tribute to Sir Coline St. John Wilson, James Hyman Gallery, London
The Flower of Life, James Hyman Gallery, London
Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY
2006
Summer Group Show, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY
2005
Modern Masters, Marlborough Fine Art, London
1999
Portrait of a City: Seven Figurative Painters from London, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
1998
Pop Art Spirits: Masterpieces from the Ludwig Collection, Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo Himeji Museum of Art, Hyogo, Japan
1997
Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, London
1996
From London, FundaciCaixa de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
1993
Obra Reciente, Arikha, Auerbach, Kitaj, Marlborough Madrid, Spain
Selected Collections
Tate Collection, LondonMoMA, New York
Publications
Aulich, J., Lynch, J., Critical Kitaj (Barber Institute's Critical Perspectives in Art History), Manchester University Press, 2000Kampf, A., Chagall to Kitaj: Jewish Experience in 20th Century Art, Greenwood Press, 1991Kinsman, J., The Prints of R.B. Kitaj, Scoalr Press, 1994 Ktiaj, R.B., R.B. Kitaj, Rizzoli International Publications, 1994Kitaj, R.B., R.B. Kitaj, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981Lambirth, A., Kitaj (Contemporary Artists), Philip Watson Publishers Ltd, 2004
Livingston, M., Kitaj, Phaidon Press Ltd, 1992
McCorguodale, D., Kitaj: The Architects: Colin St. John Wilson and MJ Long, Black Dog Publishing. 2008
Morphet, R., Wollheim, R., R B. Kitaj: A Retrospective, Tate Publishing, 1994
Wiggins, C., Kitaj in the Aura of Cezanne and Other Masters: R.B. Kitaj at the National Gallery, Yale University Press, 2001