R.B. Kitaj Studio Project

The R.B. Kitaj Estate is excited to share this news…

Piano Nobile]
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Piano Nobile are delighted to announce representation of the R.B. Kitaj Estate.

R.B. Kitaj (1932 - 2007) was one of the great figure painters of his generation. In complex and often deeply personal paintings, he explored the depths of human nature. Great art of the past was a guiding light, even as he digested and re-imagined a huge range of source material from Spaghetti Westerns to scholarly journals of art history.

Writing in 2017, his great friend David Hockney wrote of his respect and admiration for Kitaj. ‘Ron was a great influence on me, far more than any other factor’. Kitaj was admired for his seriousness, which distinguished him from an early age. Combined with the visual and intellectual clarity of his work, it is that seriousness which assures Kitaj of his place in art history.

In 2023 Piano Nobile will host a pioneering exhibition of Kitaj's work. Follow us here and subscribe to our mailing list for further information.

Images:
1. R.B. Kitaj in the studio, 1973. Photographed by Sandra Fisher. © R.B. Kitaj Estate.
2. R.B. Kitaj, Kabbalist and Shekhina, 2003 | For Sale
3. R.B. Kitaj, Fulham Road Cinema Bathers, 1988 | For Sale



Piano Nobile]

Beautiful new video on The Wedding from the Tate...

R.B. Kitaj's painting of The Wedding This painting depicts the wedding of Kitaj and the American artist Sandra Fisher (1947-94) which took place in 1983, some six years before this painting was ...

"The curator Louise Weller has hung the show with great acuity: placed near works by fellow student RB Kitaj and their tutor at the RCA Julian Trevelyan, Hockney’s prints nod to the chains of influence between the generations, but also among groups of artists."

From Hockney to Himid, 60 years of tradition and rebellion in prints at Pallant House Gallery The exhibition exemplifies the spirit of free exchange between tradition and rebellion, individuality and collaboration that have made artists’ prints such fertile ground in the postwar period and beyond

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Acquisition of the Year – Apollo Awards 2021 – MJ Long and Colin St John Wilson collection | Apollo Magazine A group of 175 works previously owned by MJ Long and Colin St John Wilson is now at Pallant House. Thomas Marks celebrates a collection even greater than the sum of its parts

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A vibrant start to the week with R.B. Kitaj's 'The Wedding', showing the artist's 1983 wedding to American artist Sandra Fisher at , the oldest Synagogue in the UK, founded in 1700. 🕍 The couple first met in Los Angeles, where Kitaj was teaching, and they met again when Kitaj returned to London in 1972. Alongside the artist's three children, the scene also includes fellow artists Lucian Freud (on the left), Frank Auerbach (in the middle) and David Hockney (on the right shown with yellow hair and round glasses), who was Kitaj's good friend and best man at the ceremony. The four were also members of the so-called ‘School of London’, a term invented by Kitaj to describe a group of artists linked by friendship, their emphasis on drawing and their concern with the human subject. Kitaj noted afterwards that these three artists gave him good advice during the painting process, which he took on over the years he took to complete it.

Find the finished work on free display in Tate Britain's newly opened 60 Years: The Unfinished Conversation.
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​R.B. Kitaj, The Wedding 1989–93, Tate collection © The estate of R. B. Kitaj.