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Notes
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References – literary, historical, and art-historical – became a defining feature of R. B. Kitaj's career. This painting was in British Council offices in Paris during the 1994 Tate show which saw him roundly attacked for his insistence on discussing them in the gallery labels. What he saw as helpful explanation was widely taken as pretentious and counter-productively confusing, and Kitaj came to see his wife's death the same year as being directly related to the shock of the critical panning. In addition to painting 'The Killer Critic Assassinated by his Widower, Even' (1997) – defiantly plastered with cultural reference and provocatively shown at the Royal Academy with a £1m price tag – the already reclusive expatriate American responded by saying he'd have his phone cut off.
Title
Melancholy after Durer
Date
1989
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 123.5 x W 122.5 cm
Accession number
P5803
Acquisition method
purchased from Marlborough Fine Art, 1990
Work type
Painting
Inscription description
verso tlc: MELANCHOLY AFTER DURER 1989 Kitaj
