TRIVIA:
In the 1960s, Leon Kossoff would work at only two paintings (a portrait and a landscape) and once embarked he would obsessively, not stopping, to finish a work for which there was an end in sight. By the 1970s, he was working on five or six paintings together.
He works quickly using a limited number of colours which he mixes that day and a large painting may be the result of only a few hours work - however that painting may have been begun and destroyed many times before.
For Kossoff drawing is a necessary prelude to painting and all the drawings are working ideas enabling him to move into the painting and bring the presence of the motif or subject into the studio.
It is not unusual for a day's work to end in seeming failure - a "grey mas". If so, it is scraped off and started again...Sometimes he is not sure whether to continue with a particular work and it may be left in the studio. Some decisions can only be made after weeks or months have elapsed.
Kossoff has never drawn or painted from photographs.
Source - Leon Kossoff, Paintings From A Decade, 1970 - 1980
BIOGRAPHY:
1926
Born London
1945-48
Military service in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany
1949-53
Studied at St Martin's School of Art and with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic, London
1953-56
Royal College of Art, London
Lives and works in London
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2002
Leon Kossoff: Drawn to Painting after Poussin, Rubens, and Other Related Works, Pillsbury & Peters Fine Art, Dallas, Texas, June 28 - August 24
Leon Kossoff, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, Australia, March 20 - April 27
2000
Recent Paintings and Drawings, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, N.Y., April 11 - May 20
Poussin Landscapes by Kossoff, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, January 18 - April 16
Drawn to Painting: Leon Kossoff Drawings and Prints after Nicolas Poussin, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, January 20 - April 2
Leon Kossoff, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, New York, April 13 - May 20, travelling to Annely Juda Fine Art, London, June 1 - July 22
1996
Leon Kossoff, Tate Gallery, London, June 6 - September 2, 1996
1995-96
Leon Kossoff, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, June-October, 1995; traveled to, Dusseldorf Kunstverein, Dusseldorf, Germany, December 12, 1995 - January 21, 1996; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, February 8 - March 31, 1996
1993
Leon Kossoff Drawings 1985 to 1992, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, February 4 - March 6; traveled to, L.A. Louver, Venice, California, May 8 - June 5
1988-89
Leon Kossoff, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, September 9 - October 8, 1988; traveled to, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, New York
1984
Leon Kossoff, Fischer Fine Art Ltd, London, March - April; traveled to, L.A. Louver, Venice, California, November - December
1983
Leon Kossoff, Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, New York, March 5 - 26
1982
L.A. Louver, Venice, California
1981
Paintings 1970-80, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1980
Recent Drawings, Riverside Studio, London
1979
Fischer Fine Art Ltd, London
1975
Fischer Fine Art Ltd, London
1973
Fischer Fine Art Ltd, London
1972
Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1968
Marlborough Fine Art Ltd, London
1957-64
Five exhibitions at Beaux Arts Gallery, London
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2000
Andrew Dempsey Exhibition London Painters, Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey, Mexico, April - September (presented by The British Council and Consejo Nacional para la Culturay las Artes)
Encounters: New Art from Old, National Gallery, London, June 14 - September 17
1998-99
L'École de Londres de Bacon ŕ Bevan, Foundation Dina Vierny / Musee Maillol, Paris, October 10, 1998 - January 20, 1999; traveled to: Auditorio De Gallicia, Santiago de Compostella, February 6 - April 4, 1999; Kunsthaus, Vienna, May 11 - August 29, 1999
1995-96
From London, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, July 1 - September 5, 1995; traveled to, Musee de l'Etat-Staatsmuseum, Luxembourg, September 22 - November 5, 1995; Musee Cantonal de Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, November 16, 1995 - January 31, 1996; Fundacio Caixa de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, February 16 - April 16, 1996
1995
Identity and Alterity, Figures of the Body 1895 - 1995, Venice Biennale, Museo Correr,Palazzo Grassi and Giardini di Castello, Venice, Italy, June-October
1994
The British Imagination, Hirschl & Adler, New York, NY
The Pursuit of the Real: British figurative painting from Sickert to Bacon, Manchester City Art Gallery; travelled to, The Barbican Art Gallery, London; Glasgow City Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
1988
Past and Present, Arts Council of Great Britain, Manchester City Art Gallery and tour
The British Picture, L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice, California
Exhibition Road: Painters at the Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art, London
1987-88
British Figurative Painting, Pamela Auchincloss Gallery, Santa Barbara, California and tour
1987
British Art in the 20th Century, Royal Academy of Arts, London
Works on Paper, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
Current Affairs, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, and British Art Council tour to Mucsarnok, Budapest; National Gallery, Prague; Zacheta, Warsaw
A School of London (Six Figurative Painters), The British Council; European touring exhibition to Oslo, Humlebeck, Venice and Dusseldorf
The Saatchi Collection, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
1986
Forty Years of Modern Art, Tate Gallery, London
1985
The British Show, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and British Council tour
1984
The Hard Won Image, Tate Gallery, London
The Proper Study, Contemporary Figurative Paintings from Britain, The British Council, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, and Bombay Centre for the Performing Arts
The British Art Show, Arts Council of Great Britain, City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and tour
1982
British Watercolors and Drawings 1950 to the Present Day, The British Council; China Art Gallery, Peking; Art Gallery and Shenyang Hans Kous Museum of Art; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
1981-82
13 British Artists-a Painting Exhibition, Neue Gallery, Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen and Kunstverein, Mannheim
Eight Figurative Painters, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT and Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
1979-80
The British Arts Show, Arts Council of Great Britain; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield and tour
1979
The Hayward Annual 1979, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, London and tour
This Knot of Life, Paintings and Drawings by British Artists, L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice, California
1978-79
Drawing in Action-An Exhibition of Contemporary Drawings, Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-Upon-Hull and tour
1977
British Painting 1952-1977, Royal Academy of Arts, London
1976
The Human Clay, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, London (selected by R.B. Kitaj)
1974-75
Body and Soul, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1974
British Painting '74, Arts Council of Great Britain, London
1967
Recent British Paintings from the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Collection, Tate Gallery, London
1966
Survey of Figurative Painting, Hempstead Art Center, London
1964
54-64 Painting and Sculpture of a Decade, Tate Gallery, London
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia
Arts Council of Great Britain, London
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
British Council, London
Calouste Gubenkian Foundation, Portugal
Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois
Chrysler Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Contemporary Art Society, London
Government Art Collection, London
Cecil Higgins Museum, Bedford
City Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
The Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Museum of London
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Rochdale Art Gallery, Lancashire
Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden
Rugby Museum, Warwickshire
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-Upon-Hull
Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, London
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, Wiltshire
Tate Gallery, London
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland
Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester
GALLERY:
biography
our new leon kossoff uk online shop
frank auerbach |
francis bacon
georg baselitz
|
joseph beuys |
christo
anselm kiefer |
hundertwasser
david hockney |
jasper johns
Click here to buy posters!
