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Ronald Brooks KitajR.B. Kitaj Orgasm: drawing of woman in ecstasy with pale pink and clay red 1975
1975
About the Item
Printed in a rich terra cotta red on pale pink paper, Orgasm depicts a woman’s head in profile with a dark background. Kitaj was fascinated with the female form, often producing edgy and erotic work inspired by film stills and pulp novel covers. In this sensual print, Kitaj chose colors related to the body: pink, the color of lips and rosy cheeks, and dark red, evoking a rush of blood. With the composition cropped close to the woman's head, the viewer is left to imagine her nude body outside the frame.
A close friend of fellow Petersburg Press collaborator David Hockney, Kitaj was known as an expressive, superlative draftsman. Art critic Robert Hughes famously wrote of Kitaj in TIME magazine that “he draws better than almost anyone else alive.”
Plate 6.1 x 6.1 in. / 15.4 x 15.6 cm
Paper 17.25 x 21.75 in / 44 x 55 cm
Lithograph on pink Wookey Hole wove waterleaf paper. Edition of 30. Signed by the artist and numbered lower left in pencil.
Catalogue reference: Jane Kinsman The Prints of R.B. Kitaj, Scolar Press in association with the National Gallery of Australia 1994, no. 84
Jennifer Ramkalawon Kitaj Prints: a catalogue raisonné, The British Museum Press 2013, no. 197, illustrated p. 179
Copies of this lithograph are in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
- Creator:Ronald Brooks Kitaj (1932-2007, American)
- Creation Year:1975
- Dimensions:Height: 17.25 in (43.82 cm)Width: 21.75 in (55.25 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:This print is not pre-owned and has been stored in the publisher's archives since its publication.
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1211214060292
Ronald Brooks Kitaj
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.
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