JL;DR
Daily Podcasts Video Research
Art · Culture

The Assassination of R.B. Kitaj

Summarizing Forward · Published Saturday, January 19, 2013
menu_book Read Original bookmark star

JL;DR SUMMARY R.B. Kitaj's retrospective titled "Obsessions" at the Jewish Museum in Berlin presents over 130 of his works, offering a profound look into Kitaj's Jewish themes and identity, showcasing his art as a blend of Diasporism and Jewish existentialism. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Holocaust  Jewish Identity  Jewish Museum Berlin  Walter Benjamin  Diasporism  Jewish Cultural Themes  Outsider Art  R.B. Kitaj  Art Retrospective  Tate Gallery Controversy 

Places mentioned

Berlin, Germany
"At his first solo show, at the Marlborough Fine Art Gallery in London in 1963, Kitaj simply presented the work as a history painting; 30 years later, he reinterpreted the assassination as foretelling the mass murder of European Jews and dedicated the work to the female victims of the Holocaust. Rosa Luxemburg is one of the first works that greet visitors to Obsessions, the Berlin Jewish Museums excellent retrospective of the Ohio-born artist Kitaj, who spent most of his career in London and committed suicide in 2007 at the age of 74."
London, United Kingdom
"At his first solo show, at the Marlborough Fine Art Gallery in London in 1963, Kitaj simply presented the work as a history painting; 30 years later, he reinterpreted the assassination as foretelling the mass murder of European Jews and dedicated the work to the female victims of the Holocaust."
Ohio, United States
"Rosa Luxemburg is one of the first works that greet visitors to Obsessions, the Berlin Jewish Museums excellent retrospective of the Ohio-born artist Kitaj, who spent most of his career in London and committed suicide in 2007 at the age of 74."
Catalonia, Spain
"The exhibits second room features canvases that were inspired by trips to Catalonia in the 1960s, when Kitajs acquaintance with figures in the movement for Catalan independence fired his own interest in questions of Jewish identity."
Paris, France
"Kitaj considered Benjamin the consummate diasporist and painted the philosopher into The Autumn of Central Paris, under the awning of the famous cafe Les Deux Magots, which, sadly, is seen in this exhibit only in reproduction."
Hamburg, Germany
"The show, which runs until late January before moving on to London and to Hamburg, Germany, brings together more than 130 paintings and graphic works, culled from museums and private collections in Europe and America, as well as from the artists estate and archive."

Support this source

newspaper Subscribe to Forward attach_money Donate to Forward
This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 84769
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-06-13 05:31:42 UTC
Curated 2026-06-13 08:30:50 UTC