Leon Kossoff “A Life in Painting”

Mitchell-Innes & Nash (534 W 26th St.)

This event has ended.

Michell-Innes & Nash presents Leon Kossoff: A Life in Painting, a major touring exhibition of paintings by the British artist Leon Kossoff (1926-2019), curated by Andrea Rose. The exhibition, which includes sixteen paintings that span the breadth of the artist’s career and represent his most celebrated subjects, has been organized in concert with the publication of Leon Kossoff: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings.

Michell-Innes & Nash has represented Leon Kossoff since 2000. A Life in Painting is the artist’s fifth solo exhibition at the gallery, and the first posthumous solo exhibition. The exhibition travels to New York from Annely Juda Fine Art, London, and is presented concurrently at L.A. Louver, Los Angeles (January 26 – March 26, 2022); it marks the third collaborative exhibition of Kossoff’s work shared by this trio of galleries, following Leon Kossoff: London Landscapes and Leon Kossoff: Recent Works, (2013-2014 and 2010-2011, respectively).
Leon Kossoff is recognized as one of the world’s greatest Post-War figurative painters with an appreciation of life’s everyday activities, finding poignancy and beauty in seemingly mundane urban settings. Having lived his lifetime in London (from which he rarely traveled), his paintings of his native city are rendered with the familiarity of a close friend. Complicated, sometimes bleak, but always vital and teeming with activity, Kossoff’s paintings reflected London’s transformation, stretching from post-war desolation to international affluence towards the end of the 20th century.

“Kossoff’s singularity – his ability to turn the ordinary circumstances of life into grand and momentous experiences – animates his work throughout … It is as if he were fashioning a new sort of painting from earth and clay, and in a reversal of usual norms, turning abstraction into form rather than form into abstraction.” – Andrea Rose, former Director of Visual Art at the British Council

In addition to London landscapes, the exhibition includes portraits of the painter’s father, his wife Peggy (also known as Rosalind), his painter friend John Lessore, and several self-portraits. In all these works, Kossoff searches for a way to bring myriad experiences together in a single image, every brushstroke telling the story of doubt and opportunity that went into their making, all of them threatening to dissolve into fleeting abstraction at any given moment.

Leon Kossoff’s deeply felt, intimate depictions of his beloved family, friends, and native London place him as one of the 20th century’s most important figurative painters. Solo exhibitions worldwide include Leon Kossoff: Drawing from Painting, National Gallery, London, 2007; Leon Kossoff: Selected Paintings, 1956-2000, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, 2004- 2005 (traveled to Museum of Art Lucerne, Switzerland, 2005); a major retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London, 1996, and representing Britain in the XLVI Venice Biennale, 1995 (traveled to Düsseldorf Kunstverein, and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1995-1996). Kossoff’s works can be found in important institutional collections worldwide, including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Tate, National Portrait Gallery, British Council, British Museum, UK; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of Southern Australia, Australian National Gallery, Australia; Louisiana Museum, Denmark; Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Spain.

A fully illustrated catalogue, Leon Kossoff: A Life in Painting, has been published on the occasion of the exhibition and includes an introduction by curator Andrea Rose, former Director of Visual Art at the British Council.

Leon Kossoff: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings is edited by Andrea Rose and published by Modern Art Press, London. It includes texts by Rose and Dr. Barnaby Wright (Deputy Head of The Courtauld Gallery and Daniel Katz Curator of 20th Century Art, The Courtauld), as well as an extensive chronology, exhibition history, public collections list, and selected bibliography.