LEON KOSSOFF

About this book

Leon Kossoff 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 Londons urban landscape: his earliest subjects documented Londons passage from wartime destruction to regeneration. The range of Kossoffs subjects has since extended to swimming pools railways and street scenes in paintings which evoke everyday urban existence. Kossoffs 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 will be mounting a retrospective exhibition of Kossoffs work including more than 80 paintings from all phases of his career. The catalogue contains colour reproductions of all these works and also features an essay by Paul Moorhouse the selector of the exhibition. This essay examines Kossoffs art in depth exploring the artists fascination with particular subjects his working methods and tracing his development from the 1950s to the present day. The essay is accompanied by archival photographs.