In Our Time

Reveals how the artist viewed publications as potent symbolic containers of the history of the twentieth century.

This volume offers new insights into R. B. Kitaj's portfolio of fifty silkscreen prints, created between 1969 and 1970, titled In Our Time: Covers for a Small Library After the Life for the Most Part, which depicted book covers, dust jackets, and other publication components, sometimes copied directly from his sources and other times subtly transformed in meaningful ways. The essays in this exhibition catalog reveal how Kitaj viewed publications as potent symbolic containers of the history of the twentieth century. Discussed are the influence of the art historian Aby Warburg’s well-known library, in which books were arranged to invite associations, and of the writer and theorist Walter Benjamin’s 1931 essay "Unpacking My Library," first published in English translation in 1968, just before Kitaj began working on In Our Time. The significance of Kitaj's exploration through books of his identity as a Jewish artist is also considered. Kitaj's series of prints as a reflection of twentieth-century book design is discussed. An essay by the contemporary artist Daria Irincheeva about her series of paintings of books, Forced Omission, poignantly shows how Kitaj's work resonates today.