R. B. Kitaj (1932-2007) is one of the most intriguing 20th-century artists. Curating The Human Clay, a 1976 show of figurative contemporary British artists, he coined the term `School of London' for the artistic circle around Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud and Leon Kossoff. A major 1994 retrospective at the Tate Gallery failed to produce Kitaj's international breakthrough; in fact, it was savagely panned by British critics. This, and the sudden death of his wife Sandra, induced his increasingly paranoid perspective. Embittered, he returned to the USA and settled in Los Angeles,...