Leon Kossoff is a British expressionist painter, known for portraits, life drawings and cityscapes of London, England. He was born in 1926 in Islington, London, and spent most of his early life living there with his Russian Jewish parents. In 1938, he attended the Hackney Downs School in London. In 1939, 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 1943, Kossoff went to St Martin's School of Art, and studied commercial art. He also attended life drawing classes in the evenings at Toynbee Hall.

After his education was completed 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 St. Martin's School of Art in 1949, and at Borough Polytechnic, took special classes under David Bomberg from 1950 to 1952.

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. From 1950-1953, Kossoff's studio was located at Mornington Crescent; he then moved to Bethnal Green, where he lived until 1961. Kossoff studied at the Royal College of Art from 1953-1956.

In 1956, Kossoff joined Helen Lessore's Beaux Arts Gallery, located on Bruton Place in London.

In 1959, Kossoff began to teach at the Regent Street Polytechnic, the Chelsea School of Art, and the St Martin's School of Art, all of which were in London. While teaching, he continued his artistic career, and soon started featuring in many 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 St. Martin's. During this time, Kossoff moved his studio to Willesden Junction, and in 1966, moved his studio to Willesden Green, where he lives and works today.

In 2007, the National Gallery (London), held an exhibition of Kossoff's work entitled "Leon Kossoff: Drawing from Painting".

Kossoff was offered the honour of Commander of British Empire (CBE), by the Queen Elizabeth II, but he refused the honour.

In 2010, Kossoff exhibited a traveling show of new paintings and drawings, beginning at Annely Juda Fine Art, London, then traveling to Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, and ending at L.A. Louver, Los Angeles.

Source:
Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Kossoff

The following obituary is from ARTFORUM magazine, July 8, 2019

British painter Leon Kossoff, known for his gritty depictions of postwar London and his unapologetic portrayals of the human condition, has died at the age of ninety-two. “Our thoughts are with his friends and family, who along with his beloved hometown of London, were the essence of his being,” said Peter Goulds, founding director of LA Louver gallery, which announced his passing.

Born to Russian Jewish immigrants in East London in 1926, Kossoff said that a visit to the National Gallery of Art, where he saw Rembrandt van Rijn’s painting Woman Bathing in a Stream, 1634, at the age of nine would serve as a transformative moment in his life. He enrolled at St. Martin’s School of Art in 1943, but his studies were interrupted in 1945, when he left to serve three years in the military. After World War II ended, Kossoff went on to study at the Borough Polytechnic, under David Bomberg, and the Royal College of Art in London.

Dedicated to rendering the changing cityscape of London, Kossoff worked in painting, drawing, and printmaking. “Ever since the age of twelve, I have drawn and painted London . . . the strange ever-changing light, the endless streets and the shuddering feel of the sprawling city linger in my mind like a faintly glimmering memory,” the artist said.

Kossoff began showing his work at Helen Lessore’s Beaux Arts Gallery in the 1950s. He would also present work at London’s Whitechapel Art Gallery and National Gallery. He rose to international prominence in the 1980s, after his work was featured in the exhibition “Eight Figurative Painters: Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, William Coldstream, Lucian Freud, Patrick George, Leon Kossoff, Euan Uglow” at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1995, he represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale, and in 1996, the Tate mounted a major retrospective of his work.

Kossoff’s paintings and works on paper can be found in the collections of numerous institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate in London, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Submitted to askART.com by M.D. Silverbrooke