Leon Kossoff

Leon Kossoff, born in 1926 in London to a family of Russian-Jewish descent, was a key figure in the tradition of figurative painting in postwar Britain. His early education at Saint Martin’s School of Art and later at Toynbee Hall laid the foundation for a fruitful career. Kossoff’s artistic development was profoundly influenced by his mentor David Bomberg, a prominent British modernist painter known for his dynamic and expressive use of form. Kossoff, alongside his contemporaries Frank Auerbach and others associated with the ‘School of London’, became known for his emotionally intense and tactile approach to painting.

Kossoff's portraits, life studies, and depictions of London’s urban landscape are marked by a unique interplay of dense, impassioned brushwork and a palpable sense of materiality. His works not only the physicality of his subjects but also the psychological and emotional weight of their presence, achieved through thick, heavily worked layers of paint.

Kossoff’s approach to figuration resisted the ascendancy of abstraction in the postwar period. While numerous artists championed minimalism and conceptualism, Kossoff adhered to a vision that placed the figure at the centre of his practice. His commitment to depicting the human body in all its complexity, as well as his deep engagement with the particularities of place—especially the streets and buildings of London—marks his work as part of the enduring tradition of figurative art.

Kossoff’s impact on British painting was recognized both in his lifetime and posthumously. He exhibited widely, including a major retrospective at the Tate Gallery in 1996. His works are held in significant collections, such as the Tate, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Kossoff’s exploration of the interplay between the physical and emotional dimensions of the human experience remains a crucial aspect of his legacy.

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