Leon Kossoff

A key figure in the "School of London"--the group of postwar British figurative painters that included Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon--Leon Kossoff was born in Islington and has lived and worked in London his entire life. Published on the occasion of a rare exhibition of early Kossoff paintings at New York's Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery, this monograph introduces 12 works, including fine examples of his figure paintings and cityscapes, dating from 1957-1967--most of which have never before been seen in the United States. Kossoff's style is characterized by an impasto surface, built up in frothy layers that evoke emotional tumult. The volume provides such meticulous reproductions of these paintings that the reader is able to get a feel for their unique texture and surface. Also featured is an essay by English cultural critic Al Alvarez, rare photographs of Kossoff in his studio and a biography and timeline of his life and career.

The thronging London of Leon Kossoff's paintings, as well as his figures and portraits, seem at once starkly contemporary and evocative of the post-World War II mood. Even when some 40 years apart, the paintings are always unmistakably his, timeless. A radically old-fashioned artist in many ways, he tries to get as close as he can to what he sees. For Kossoff it all begins with the drawing, and this phase may well last for months or years. Then the painting is completed within a few hours. The struggle with the oils and the actual physical weight of the material serves to unify the subject. As with Giacometti, the visual experience is both a means and an end.