Paul Blackburn

More Information

Kitaj, who viewed art as a vehicle through which to “witness the human condition,” addressed the human form in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when many other artists were intensely engaged with abstraction. An avid reader of literature and modern poetry, Kitaj greatly admired the American expatriate poet Ezra Pound. Pound, in turn, heavily influenced Paul Blackburn, the subject of this drawing, himself an influential poet involved with the New York art scene in the 1950s and 1960s. Kitaj focuses tightly on Blackburn’s face to capture his intensity.

Keywords