RB KITAJ

R.B Kitaj painted fantastic figurative paintings, witch combined areas of bright colour, minimal use of line and overlapping planes witch gave them an almost collage like appearance. He had a significant interest in pop art witch I think was a huge inspiration for him, and you can see the connection in some elements of his work like his use of colour and overall vibrancy, but his work is definitely centered on a foundation of abstraction and modernism.

His subject matter in his paintings vary from political history, art, literature, social equality and identity particularly in his Jewish roots. He also made a number of screen prints as starting points or ideas for his next paintings.

He often paints disorientating landscapes and imaginative, exaggerated, expressive human forms in an attempt to lure you into the body language and facial expression in a direct attempt to convey the subject matter, and he does this beautifully. You get a real sense of place and atmosphere from his paintings, a lot more then you would from a simple photograph or realistic representation.