Paul Cézanne, 'Bathers',
about 1900-6.
London, National Gallery.
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Kitaj: 'Los Angeles No. 3'
Page 3 of 4
The second part of the exhibition was all new work, in which Kitaj paid homage to his great hero, Cézanne. After accepting the invitation to exhibit his work in the National Gallery, Kitaj embarked upon a period of intense work in the Los Angeles studio that he moved to in 1997.
'These new pictures are inspired by my favourite paintings of all time, which are the three last unfinished "Bathers" compositions of Cézanne. The one that I know so well, like the palm of my hand, is of course here in the National Gallery. I realised that the subject, Bathers, was not that interesting to me, so I switched to a subject which is very interesting to me: Lovers.'
These new pictures are candidly autobiographical, the lovers to whom Kitaj alludes in the titles being the artist himself and his late wife, the American painter Sandra Fisher.
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