The Diasporist Unpacks: The Epigonic Rummagings of R.B. Kitaj

Abstract

HIS rumpled, HAIR TOUSLED a collector MADLY, stoops and excitedly his fusty to garments inspect his bunched books. The and rumpled, a collector stoops excitedly to inspect his books. The eccentric bibliophile in this painted scene is the artist himself, R.B. Kitaj (b.1932), and the painting Unpacking My Library from 1990/1991 captures a common practice for the peripatetic artist. Tm always unpacking my library like that,' muses the painter, ť[a]lways packing part of it up and unpacking sometimes years later, thrilled with forgotten treasures and surprises.1 At times, Kitaj s library has explicitly provided the imagery for his works, as in 1969 when he created In Our Time: Covers for a Small Library After the Life for the Most Part , a series of fifty screen prints taken from photos of his own worn and dog-eared texts. More often, Kitaj s library is the absent presence in his works, supplying the loose weave of literary allusions which connects the artists oeuvre . Since his early career Kitaj has found that 'books are for me what trees are for a landscape painter. They inspire.'2 Not only have books inspired Kitaj to paint, they also seem to have stimulated his desire to write. For the past two decades Kitaj has increasingly penned what he calls explanatory prefaces' to his paintings, intended to accompany his works both on exhibition and in publication. Kitaj keeps the volumes of Adin Steinsaltzs Talmud translation stacked beside the easel in his studio and in recent years he has come to