Index

Header Painting © Leon Kossoff/Tate

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Leon Kossoff 1996 Hardcover Book :: Direct Link, Amazon.com >> Direct Link, Amazon.co.uk >> Smartphone Page - Extensively Scanned >> Leon Kossoff 1981 Book :: Direct Link, Amazon.co.uk >> Drawn To Painting: Leon Kossoff's Drawings And Paintings After Nicholas Poussin Book :: Direct Link, Amazon.co.uk >> Leon Kossoff: XLV I Venice 1995 Book :: Direct Link, Amazon.co.uk >> Search Site

Biography

Leon Kossoff (1926 - 2019) is one of the most important British artists of the post-war period. Among the main preoccupations of his art has been the changing face of London's urban landscape: his earliest subjects documented London's passage from wartime destruction to regeneration. The range of Kossoff's subjects has since extended to swimming pools, railways and street scenes in paintings which evoke everyday urban existence. Kossoff's other main concern has been the human figure, and his portraits and studies are intense, yet also intimate, evocations of human presence. In 1996, the Tate Gallery mounted a retrospective exhibition of Kossoff's work, including more than 80 paintings from all phases of his career...

Source: Leon Kossoff 1996 Book :: Direct Link, Amazon.com

Key Dates

1926
Born London

1945-48
Military service in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany

Kossoff prints @ ebay.co.uk (direct link to prints)

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

kossoff
Sally No. 1
Oil on Board
© Leon Kossoff

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.

Kossoff prints @ ebay.co.uk (direct link to prints)

It is not unusual for a day's work to end in seeming failure - a "grey mass". 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.

Leon Kossoff books are available @ amazon.com.

Kossoff prints @ ebay.co.uk (direct link to prints)

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 à 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

Just a few key works below. Kossoff, like Frank Auerbach is one of those artists whose work has to be seen in the flesh to truly appreciate it. It has to be seen in 3-D! For sure, books and scans are a decent substitute but there is nothing like discovering a Kossoff piece in a museum and marvelling over it.

Updated gallery is now here.

Kossoff prints @ ebay.co.uk (direct link to prints)

Sept. 2013: As part of photographing the covers and inner flaps of every book ever published, I've started the scans on Leon Kossoff books which can be viewed here (smartphone page). Just a few for the mo. but will be added to. If you have any photos of any Leon Kossoff book covers from any part of the world why not e-mail (ihuppert5@aol.com) them to me and I'll put them up. The aim is to have a visual record of every Leon Kossoff book ever published. Inner flaps and the publishers notes contain so much info about the book - I like to include at least the flap as well if possible. And your help makes it a lot easier. Or, if you prefer, you can send me your unwanted books and I can scan them. Any book, not just this author. Address: Paul Page, 5 High St., South Norwood, London SE25 6EP, UK. If you are thinking of chucking those books out then this would make a perfect alternative home for them

Leon Kossoff books are available @ amazon.com.