Image: Nasher Museum of Art, London
‘Read the Room: R.B. Kitaj’s IN OUR TIME Today’ is on view at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University from September 8 through December 6, 2026.
The exhibition presents Kitaj’s ‘IN OUR TIME: COVERS FOR A SMALL LIBRARY AFTER THE LIFE FOR THE MOST PART’ (1969), a portfolio of fifty screenprints drawn from books in the artist’s personal library. The portfolio includes ‘The Prevention of Destitution,’ a 1969 screenprint, and ‘The Jewish Question,’ a 1969 screenprint and photoscreenprint on paper. It also includes ‘Final: City of Burbank, California, Annual Budget 1968-1969’ and ‘Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls,’ both identified as screenprints from the 1969 portfolio. Another work from the portfolio is ‘Towards a Better Life,’ identified as a 1969 screenprint.
Although born in Cleveland, Ohio, Kitaj spent most of his life in England and often felt like an outsider, describing himself as ‘utterly American.’ The museum describes him as a key figure in British Pop Art whose work blended figurative painting with history and politics.
