Speed of Life

"R.B. Kitaj was one of the pre-eminent figure painters working in post-war London. Despite the acclaim he achieved in his lifetime, since his death in 2007 he has not been widely exhibited in London and many areas of art historical research into his work await exploration. His paintings and drawings, especially those made in his Los Angeles period between 1997 and 2007, warrant more detailed appraisal than they have yet received. Outstanding research topics reach far beyond a consideration of his source materials and include his ambiguous interposition between modernity and post-modernity, his self-conscious use of eclectic styles as a vehicle for meaning, and the varied networks he connected with, from the swinging London of his friends David Hockney and Mick Jagger to the Beat scene of California. In short, Kitaj and his work are long overdue for reconsideration. In collaboration with Piano Nobile, the Courtauld Research Forum will contribute to that process of reconsideration. ...

From the BBC - "4-part BBC documentary series in which art historian James Fox explores how the power of images has transformed the modern world. James starts at the beginning of the 20th century, when an explosion of scientific and technological advances created radical new ways of looking at the world. From the impact of aerial photography on modern art to our ability to peer inside the body and freeze time itself, the first episode is a dizzying journey of visual invention, which makes fascinating connections between the work of artists, film-makers, photographers and scientists. Revealing Salvador Dali’s debt to Einstein, the groundbreaking trickery of Buster Keaton and shockingly modern fakery of WWI photos, James Fox offers an endlessly surprising, eye-opening look at the beginnings of our image-saturated age."