Even with his legendary expertise, Chris Prater at Kelpra Studio must have struggled to complete the printing of Kitaj’s Die Gute alte Zeit, 1969.
This screenprint is from the series, Struggle in the West: The Bombing of London, 1967-69. Size is 1044mm x 682mm and edition size, 70 with 5 Artist’s Proofs:
The complexity of this image was such that no less than 57 colour printings were required. It is likely that this would have taken up a month of studio time.
More usually Kitaj prints of this period involved 15 – 20 printings. It was very much part of the concept of this work that it should be as technically adventurous as possible. As a result it cost about 3 times as much to produce. After some ‘commercial’ discussions, Kitaj promised not to get so carried away again!
The series ran out of steam. Jennifer Ramkalawon writes this of it in the Kitaj Prints Catalogue Raisonne:
In a letter to Prater, Kitaj explained the ideas behind his next series of prints on the theme of London during the Blitz. He went on to describe the complex nature of the proposed prints with the use of photographs and various fancy papers. However, after the first two prints were completed Kitaj began to lose heart with the project, either because it was becoming extremely expensive to produce or possibly because his ideas were too complex for the series.
To me this is Kitaj at his best as a printmaker. However, in later years Kitaj himself expressed dissatisfaction with his 60s prints, having from the 70s onwards revised his artistic practice to focus much more on drawing and painting from life.
davidbuckden 