Kitaj Prints at The British Museum

The extraordinarily generous gift of 293 prints and 18 drawings presented to the British Museum by the American artist R.B. Kitaj (1932-2007) offers a timely opportunity to reassess this artist’s graphic output, being the first exhibition of his prints in London for almost twenty years. A selection of around 50 prints and some of the drawings will be shown alongside other new acquisitions. Kitaj was one of the major artists of the twentieth century, and had always wanted his prints to reside alongside the Old Masters in the British Museum. As Kitaj’s last assistant Tracy Bartley has stated: ‘The British Museum held a very special place in Kitaj's heart. As the repository of the national collection of prints and drawings the gift coming to the Museum was an easy decision. He certainly knew he would be in good company’. Although Kitaj tragically committed suicide in 2007, the artist’s estate honoured his wishes making the Museum’s holdings of the artist’s works on paper the most comprehensive in the UK.

\nKitaj’s gift contains the major suites of prints from the 1960s and 1970s, including the magisterial In Our Time series.