R.B. Kitaj was one of the most exciting, interesting and perplexing of the worlds generation of painters born in the late 1920's and early 1930's. What is more, he joined the minority of top artists of his day who kept alive the ancient traditions of figurative painting. Beyond that he was the most self-conscious, self-revelatory, overtly intellectual and aggressively Jewish in content of his time. He also championed the incorporation of text in pictures and attempts at written explanation accompanying paintings, to the chagrin of many critics. Complex, allusive, surrealist, polished in his work, in the later decades of his life, he opened up to free expression, broad, sweeping strokes, unfinished surfaces and emphasis on the most basic of human emotions. The intensity of love, grief, despair, hope, and frustration, manifest in high color, in those last years, struck me at the time as being as stirring as any work I have ever seen.
In this fourth edition of his standard work on Kitaj, Livingstone has been abetted by the publisher who sought to endow it with the richness of pictures in color not black and white. This has made his essay on Kitaj far more enlightening and understanding
of Kitaj's life and work much deeper than was possible from earlier editions. The addition of a healthy selection from his later pictures is a major improvement. The inclusion of some of Kitaj's own commentaries on particular work illustrated in the book helps one to see the artist's mind at work.
I can commend this fourth edition of the book to all who find their lives enriched by art. Kitaj committed suicide in Los Angeles in 2007 at the age of 75.
