Leon Kossoff

British artist Leon Kossoff (1926-2019) is one of the most acclaimed figurative painters of the twentieth century. A born and bred Londoner, Kossoff found inspiration in his close environment; from within his studio walls to the city’s streets. Often building layer on layer of paint over long periods of time, Kossoff created expressive, tactile surfaces. Through a use of heavy impasto, his canvases took on a three-dimensional, almost sculptural quality. From early in his career, Kossoff’s focus on the city's streets led him to capture the post-war bomb-damaged neighbourhoods or historic landmarks like Christ Church Spitalfields and Arnold Circus, which held a deep connection to his family's history as part of the Jewish diaspora that settled in the area during the early 20th century. In the intimacy of his studio, he would create psychologically penetrating portraits and figure studies, often of family members and friends. Kossoff was considered a member of the ‘School of London’ group of artists, which included such artists as Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Although their approaches differed, the group adopted a radical commitment to figurative painting at a time when conceptualism and minimalism were the dominant forces in the art world. Kossoff was also a skilled and dedicated printmaker throughout his lifetime.

Kossoff began his artistic training at St. Martin’s School of Art in 1943 but left in 1945 to complete three years of military service. He returned to St. Martin’s in 1949 and followed David Bomberg’s classes at Borough Polytechnic from 1950 to 1952. He then completed his training at the Royal College of Art between 1953 and 1956. Kossoff represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and was the subject of a retrospective at the Tate Gallery in 1996. His work is held in major public and private collections around the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Tate Gallery, London.