R.B. Kitaj
Little Suicide Picture
1968
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R.B. Kitaj
Little Suicide Picture
1968
Physical Qualities
Pastel on prepared canvas, Sheet: 472 x 473 mm. (18 9/16 x 18 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection
Object Number
1970.4.4
American artist R.B. Kitaj spent the better part of his career in England concentrating on figurative painting. Here an ice skater glides along, his face averted so that he appears not to notice a second figure lying on the ice. The drawing includes the phrase “little suicide picture,” which is also the title of the work. While the two aspects seem disparate, one wonders if the suicide of Kitaj’s first wife, Elsi Roessler, the same year, comes into play and whether the prone figure has fallen or something more dramatic has occurred.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1970; Mr. Edward Benesch, NY
"R.B. Kitaj: Pictures from an exhibition held at the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover and the Boymans Museum, Rotterdam 1970" Marlborough Fine Art, London, 23 April - 23 May 1970, no. 48.
Victor Carlson (organized and circulated by the BMA), "19th and 20th Century Prints and Drawings from The Baltimore Museum of Art." E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, November 3 - December 2, 1973; Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, January 18 - February 17, 1974; The William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, April 2 - April 21, 1974, cat. 31.
"R.B. Kitaj," Hirshhorn Museum of Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 17 September - 15 November 1981, cat. 26 (illus).
BMA, "Selected Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Collection," 3 September - 1 December 1985.
BMA, "Figure Drawings from the Museum's Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 21 July - 27 September 1987.
BMA, "Modern Master Drawings from the Museum's Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 21 February - 30 April 1989.
BMA, "Drawings of the 1960s from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 17 November 1993 - 30 January 1994.
BMA, "On Paper: Figure Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," April 20 - September 14, 2014.
Victor Carlson (organized and circulated by the BMA), "19th and 20th Century Prints and Drawings from The Baltimore Museum of Art." E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, November 3 - December 2, 1973; Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, January 18 - February 17, 1974; The William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, April 2 - April 21, 1974, cat. 31.
"R.B. Kitaj," Hirshhorn Museum of Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 17 September - 15 November 1981, cat. 26 (illus).
BMA, "Selected Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Collection," 3 September - 1 December 1985.
BMA, "Figure Drawings from the Museum's Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 21 July - 27 September 1987.
BMA, "Modern Master Drawings from the Museum's Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 21 February - 30 April 1989.
BMA, "Drawings of the 1960s from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," 17 November 1993 - 30 January 1994.
BMA, "On Paper: Figure Drawings from the Thomas E. Benesch Memorial Collection," April 20 - September 14, 2014.
"The Thomas Edward Benesch Memorial Collection," BMA, 1970, unpaginated.
Inscribed: center right in pastel: "little / suicide / picture / Kitaj"
