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Moonlightist

R.B. Kitaj American
1998
Not on view
In a single portrait Kitaj pays homage to two great American artists. The painting's composition is closely modeled after Marsden Hartley's less colorful 1938 portrait Albert Pinkham Ryder (MMA 1992.24.4), which was on view at The Met during Kitaj's 1995 retrospective. Kitaj's choice of title and his inclusion of a large yellow moon (not in the 1938 painting), derive from Hartley's poem "Albert Ryder, Moonlightist." Kitaj, whose career and reputation were established in England (where he lived for forty years until his return to the U.S. in 1997), here reminds us that his artistic roots are nevertheless firmly planted in the romantic, expressionist traditions of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century American art.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Moonlightist
  • Artist: R.B. Kitaj (American, Cleveland, Ohio 1932–2007 Los Angeles, California)
  • Date: 1998
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 28 × 18 in. (71.1 × 45.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of the artist, in honor of William S. Lieberman, 2004
  • Object Number: 2004.487
  • Rights and Reproduction: © R.B.Kitaj Estate
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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