Editing R. B. Kitaj (section)

==Life==
He was born in [[Chagrin Falls, Ohio]], United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.artnet.com/artists/rb-kitaj/ |title=R. B. Kitaj |publisher=artnet.com |access-date=17 January 2023}}</ref> His Hungarian father, Sigmund Benway, left his mother, Jeanne Brooks, shortly after he was born and they were divorced in 1934.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/arts/24kitaj.html|title=R. B. Kitaj, Painter of Moody Human Dramas, Dies at 74|last=Schwendener|first=Martha|date=October 24, 2007|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 6, 2018|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> His mother was the American-born daughter of [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian-Jewish]] immigrants.<ref name="Jewish Renaissance"/> She worked in a [[steel mill]] and as a [[teacher]]. She remarried in 1941, to Dr [[Walter Kitaj]], a [[Vienna|Viennese]] refugee<ref name="Jewish Renaissance"/> research chemist, and Ronald took his surname. His mother and stepfather were non-practicing [[Jew]]s. He was educated at [[Troy High School (New York)|Troy High School]] (New York). He became a [[Merchant shipping|merchant seaman]] with a [[Norway|Norwegian]] [[Cargo ship|freighter]] when he was 17 and travelled by boat to [[Havana]] and [[Mexico]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/9154607 |title=Contemporary artists |publisher=St. Martin's Press |others=Muriel Emanuel |year=1983 |isbn=0-312-16643-5 |edition=2nd |location=New York |oclc=9154607}}</ref>

He studied at the [[Akademie der bildenden Künste]] in [[Vienna]] and the [[Cooper Union]] in [[New York City]]. After serving in the [[United States Army]] for two years, in France and Germany, he moved to England to study at the [[Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art]] in [[Oxford]] (1958–59) under the [[G.I. Bill]], where he developed a love of [[Cézanne]], and then at the [[Royal College of Art]] in [[London]] (1959–61), alongside [[David Hockney]], [[Derek Boshier]], [[Peter Phillips (artist)|Peter Phillips]], [[Allen Jones (sculptor)|Allen Jones]] and [[Patrick Caulfield]]. [[Richard Wollheim]], the philosopher and [[David Hockney]] remained lifelong friends.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/oct/23/guardianobituaries.usa|title=Obituary: RB Kitaj|last=McNay|first=Michael|date=October 23, 2007|work=[[The Guardian]]|language=en|access-date=March 6, 2018}}</ref> He lived in California from 1967–68 and became friends with [[Robert Creeley]] and painter [[Jess Collins]].<ref name=":0" />

Kitaj married his first wife, Elsi Roessler, in 1953; they had a son, screenwriter [[Lem Dobbs]], and adopted a daughter, Dominie. Elsi died by [[suicide]] in 1969. After living with [[Sandra Fisher]] for 12 years, he married her in December 1983 and they had one son, Max. Sandra Fisher died in 1994, at age 47, from [[acute disseminated encephalomyelitis]] (not an [[aneurysm]], as is commonly written). Kitaj had a mild [[heart attack]] in 1990. He died in Los Angeles in October 2007, eight days before his 75th birthday.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071029174420/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article3093771.ece Obituary], ''[[The Independent]]'', October 25, 2007</ref> Seven weeks after Kitaj's death, the [[Los Angeles County]] coroner ruled that the cause of death was suicide  by suffocation.<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-05-et-quick5.s5-story.html| title = Kitaj's Death is ruled a suicide| author = Boehm, Mike| date = December 5, 2007
|access-date= September 2, 2019|work = [[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref>