Leon kossoff biography

British figurative painter (–)

Leon Kossoff
Born	()10 December Islington, London, England
Died	4 July () (aged&#;92) London, England
Known&#;for	Painting
Movement	School of London

Leon Kossoff (10 December – 4 July ) was a British figurative painter known for portraits, life drawings and cityscapes of London, England.

Early years and education

Kossoff was born in Islington, London, and spent most of his early life living there with his Russian Jewish parents. In , he attended the Hackney Downs School in London.

5:03YouTubeLeon Kossoff: A Life in Painting at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, NYC

Contemporary ArtJan 24, 20222.3K Views

5:50YouTubeLeon Kossoff: London Landscapes (Trailer, 2013)Nov 19, 201332.6K Views

In , he was evacuated with the school to King's Lynn, Norfolk, where he lived with Mr and Mrs R.C. Bishop, who encouraged his interest in art. During this time, Kossoff made his first paintings. When he returned to London in , Kossoff went to Saint Martin's School of Art, and studied commercial art. He also attended life drawing classes in the evenings at Toynbee Hall.

See full list on theartstory.org Kossoff, who would be in a position to note that the real trick is to have talent at 85, shows the way. On this point the art critic Michael Glover suggests that Kossoff's "pummeling and piling up and wrenching about of paint" was perhaps an extension of the family bakery business where as a boy he would have watched his father knead his dough in a similar vein. His eyes stare down with dismay at something off canvas, an abyss? Yet the work also seems to signal something of a turning point in Kossoff's career.

He spent three years in military service with the Royal Fusiliers, attached to the 2nd Battalion Jewish Brigade, and served in Italy, Holland, Belgium and Germany. After his military service, he returned to the Saint Martin's School of Art in , and at Borough Polytechnic, took special classes under David Bomberg from to He was also influenced by another one of his teacher's students, Frank Auerbach.

Both young artists dealt with similar emotions and subject matter in their work, and employed heavy impasto in their paintings. Kossoff chose his subject matter mostly from the area of London where he was born.

Videos Kossoff's paintings ask the viewer to consider simultaneously the image, and the texture and application, of the paint itself. Indeed, many of Kossoff's London s cityscapes reference the aftermath of WWII, not only in the physical sense of buildings being demolished, but also in the psychological sense. Like many of his early works, there is a strong sense of foreboding here, giving the feeling that the city, in the words of art critic Donald Kuspit, is "suffocating under toxic ash" and that post-war London is "haunted by death". Now moving into his twilight years, Kossoff's palette became softer and his work more in tune with nature and his own mortality.

From to , Kossoff's studio was located at Mornington Crescent; he then moved to Bethnal Green, where he lived until Kossoff studied at the Royal College of Art from to

Career

In , Kossoff joined Helen Lessore's Beaux Arts Gallery, located on Bruton Place in London. In , Kossoff began to teach at the Regent Street Polytechnic, the Chelsea School of Art, and the Saint Martin's School of Art, all in London.

While teaching, he continued his artistic career, and soon started featuring in galleries and shows, along with his friend Frank Auerbach and other artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Keith Critchlow, a school friend from Saint Martin's. During this time, Kossoff moved his studio to Willesden Junction, and in , moved his studio to Willesden Green.

Leon kossoff biography Download PDF Artforum. Says Glover, "These early portraits seem to be in love with an inner darkness, at one with it. Commenting on his similarities to Freud, critic Clare Hurley wrote "Like Lucian Freud, grandson of psychoanalysis's founder Sigmund who had likewise taken refuge from Nazism in London, Kossoff was known for always working with a model, never from a photograph. Winnicott, elaborating and deepening Freud's idea, called "primary creativity," by which he meant the spontaneity innate to us all yet often stifled or channeled into trivial pursuits by society.

In , Kossoff exhibited his artworks at the 46th Venice Biennale and in was the subject of a Tate Gallery retrospective.^[1] In , London's National Gallery held an exhibition of Kossoff's work entitled "Leon Kossoff: Drawing from Painting".^[2] Kossoff declined appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.^[3] In , Kossoff exhibited a travelling show of new paintings and drawings, beginning at Annely Juda Fine Art, London, then travelling to Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, and ending at L.A.

Louver, Los Angeles.^[4] In &#;14, Kossoff's urban landscapes were shown in a travelling international exhibition, titled "Leon Kossoff: London Landscapes".^[5] Kossoff died at the age of 92 on 4 July from complications of a stroke.^[6][7]

References

External links