![R.B. Kitaj, Kennst Du das Land?, [Do you know the land, where the lemon-trees grow], 1962](../bilder/kitaj-kennst-du-das-land.jpg "R.B. Kitaj, Kennst Du das Land?, [Do you know the land, where the lemon-trees grow], 1962")
R.B. Kitaj, Kennst Du das Land?, [Do you know the land, where the lemon-trees grow], 1962
Oil and collage on canvas,
122 × 122 cm
© R.B. Kitaj Estate/Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
3/9
The painting "Kennst Du das Land?" combines various fragments that Kitaj associated with the time of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the fight against fascism. The soldiers in a snowy landscape set the thematic focus on nationalism and militarism in Spain.
The upper section of the painting opens additional levels of association. Kitaj incorporated a sketch after Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), which shows a woman adjusting her stocking, thus drawing parallels to a time in which Spanish society was marked by struggles between progress and reaction.
The original German title of the painting and the two lemons that appear to have been placed at random make reference to a verse from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795-96) which tells the story of a yearning for Italy and that Kitaj here transfers to Spain.
In 1953 Kitaj spent his first winter in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, north of Barcelona. This city became a second home for the artist, especially because of his close friendship with Josep Vicente Romà (1923-2011). Kitaj was fascinated by Josep's intense bond to Catalonia, his struggle for the Spanish republic, and his Catalonian patriotism. These experiences inspired Kitaj to deal with questions of his own origins and his Jewish identity, and would fundamentally shape his artistic work.
"'Kennst Du das Land?...' Goethe meant Italy of course in his famous lines, but my picture is about Spain, because I had fallen in love with Catalonia since my first wife and I spent the winter of 1953 in the port of Saint Feliu de Guixols, where I would buy a house twenty years later.
What I loved even more than Catalonia was my friendship with Josep, just about the purest heart I've ever known, and this painting is really about what he called 'our war' which tore his Spain apart and burned its way into the souls of so many people I've known.
Homage to Catalonia and to the Spanish Republic is not unusual in my lifetime. This painting of mine is just another little altarpiece among those many journeyman shrines which mark the graveyards of fascism. I've kept this painting many years. It swings in my attic, creaking nostalgia, and reminds me that fascism is not dead after all (as if one needs reminding). The picture recalls a lost period in my life, a loss I regret."
from: Kitaj Interviewed by Richard Morphet, in: Richard Morphet (Hrsg.), R.B. Kitaj: A Retrospective, Tate Gallery 1994
"The Franco era put Spain to sleep with bad dreams. For me, Barcelona, in the years to come was one of my favorite good dreams because it remained largely as it was when Picasso was a boy. Its great port-life in the Barrio Chino would become my night town of choice, my Weimar Berlin, my Field of Dreams of a past art I could use in my own art. I would learn to lose myself, time and time again in those back alley-streets, binging on sex and old books and Catalan food in a Blue Period mindfulness I knew was a fluke, soon to disappear. My wife Elsie and I first arrived at Sant Feliu on a rattletrap bus from Barcelona one January night in 1953. We awoke to the morning sea and decided to retire there rather than go back to Vienna. So, Mr. and Mrs. Kitaj age 21 stayed the winter."
from: R.B. Kitaj, Confessions of an old Jewish Painter, unpublished autobiography, R.B. Kitaj Estate
R.B. Kitaj on his painting "Kennst Du das Land?" (Excerpts from the exhibition's audio guide, narrator: Peter Rigney)
