Ronald B. Kitaj

The Perils of Revisionism combines symbolism from history, literature, and art in a disparate composition that alludes to the fragmentation and ideological reconstruction of socialism in different nations after World War II.

In the top portion of the canvas, boldly colored, angular planes and intersecting lines call to mind the dynamic aesthetic of Russian Constructivism. “Chicagoism of the soul”—written on a section of unprimed canvas resembling a book cover or notepad—is a quote from Soviet poet and Russian Futurist Vladimir Mayakovsky. The phrase parallels the desires of the Bolshevik Revolution with the celebrated outcome of Chicago’s rapid modernization after the Civil War, which was shaped in large part by the extraordinary rise of the working-class during the Industrial Revolution. The hunched over figure in the foreground wears an officer’s cap resembling a Soviet military uniform, and behind him a red Volkswagon Beetle appears to have crashed into a brick wall. Portrayed here, the Beetle—the “people’s car” of Germany propagated by Hitler in the 1930s—evokes the disastrous fate of National Socialism in Germany which ended in Fascism. Near the wreckage is a figure with a traditional Chinese braid. Around the time this painting was made, the Cultural Revolution in China was gaining momentum, and this iconic hairstyle was one characteristic of “Old China” denounced by Mao.

Born outside Cleveland in 1932, Kitaj’s father was Hungarian and his mother was the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants. In 1957 Kitaj moved to England under the G.I. Bill to study at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford and then at Royal College of Art in London, where he became associated with British Pop artists David Hockney, Patrick Caulfield, and Allen Jones. In 1991, he became the first American artist since John Singer Sargent to be elected to the Royal Academy.