Biography
Born in 1926 Kossoff is a Britishpainter known for portraits, life drawings and cityscapes of London where spent most of his early life with his Russian/Jewish parents. Kossoff went to Saint Martin’s School of Art. Kossoff remained remarkably consistent in his methods and in his range of subject-matter, although he gradually moved away from the earth colours and thick encrusted surfaces towards a more sparing use of paint and a wider range of brighter colours. His figure paintings are often of close friends and family members; and his pictures of nudes are often of his wife, Rosalind, or of his long-standing model Fidelma. Autobiographical content is also foremost in his pictures of London, peopled by family and friends identifiable in many cases from studio portraits. He is sometimes classed as an Expressionist, although his references to the work of Old Masters such as Titian, Rembrandt and Rubens reveal him as a figurative painter with a strong sense of tradition.
In 2007, the National Gallery London, held an exhibition of Kossoff’s work entitled “Leon Kossoff: Drawing from Painting”.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2010 Annely Juda Fine Art, London
2002 Annandale Galleries, Sydney
1996 Tate Gallery, London
1995 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1988; 1993 Anthony D’Offay Gallery, London
Selected Group Exhibtions
2006 Portraits, James Hyman Gallery, London
2005 Fifty Years of British Landscape Painting, James Hyman Gallery, London
Collections
Arts Council London
Ben Uri Collection, London
British Museum, England
National Portrait Gallery, London
Royal College of Art and Tate, London
National Galleries of Scotland
J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles
MoMA, New York