R. B. Kitaj - ACE013.2

Kitaj answering question about his career: at art school in America, studying in Vienna, then to Oxford on the GI Bill, and to Royal College of Art, London. Offered teaching jobs which enabled him to stay in England. Photographs and Kitaj VO on Modernism. Kitaj (black and white interview), sketches. "the corruption of the figure tradition", a "nagging social conscience" which means he wants work "to become far more available". Talking about his painting Juan de la Cruz (1967). Black and white interview: Kitaj says he’s repelled by the anonymity and universality of much Modernist work. Talks about his own approach in his portrait, Morella (1969). Talking about Charles Olson and the "high energy construction". Morella. The Modernist arrangement meeting the familiar. Quotes Giacometti saying "the head is sovereign". Charcoal heads of people and animals from Photography and Philosophy (1964).