Leon Kossoff: A London Life

1 March - 22 May 2019 Piano Nobile

Summary

Leon Kossoff: A London Life was an exhibition of paintings and drawings by one of Britain’s most acclaimed living artists, curated in partnership with Andrew Dempsey (curator and writer). With a catalogue raisonné of Kossoff’s paintings in preparation, this was an apt moment to consider his oeuvre. The show brought together masterworks from each period of the artist’s career, demonstrating the unwavering rigour, the nuance and the psychological intensity of his output.

The exhibition explored the artist’s working practice and his creative environment. The city of his birth, London, played a central role in his career and many cityscapes were on display – from Willesden Junction to Christ Church, Spitalfields. Kossoff has spent over six decades working in North London and the show drew attention to the subtle, often poignant relationship between his creative life and his surroundings.

His friends and family also contributed to his vision and the exhibition reflected on the relationship between the artist and his models. It included oil paintings of his brother, Chaim, and his model and friend, Fidelma, long-standing subjects in Kossoff’s work. Together, these landscape and figure paintings presented an irrefutable argument for Leon Kossoff’s place in the canon of modern master painters.

A fully-illustrated publication accompanied the exhibition with an introduction by Jackie Wullschlager (chief art critic for The Financial Times) and essays by Andrew Dempsey and Lulu Norman (writer and translator).