by Paul Moorhouse
Published by order of the Trustees, 1996 for the exhibition at the Tate Gallery, 6 June – 1 September 1996

Leon Kossoff is one of the most distinctive British artists of the post-war period. Born in Islington in 1926, Kossoff has spent most of his life in the city of his birth and the changing face of London’s urban landscape has been a major theme of his art.

In the 1950s, Kossoff’s dramatic paintings and drawings of bomb sites documented the aftermath of war. These led, in the following decade, to panoramic railway landscapes which charted the city’s rebirth and regeneration. In London’s railways – from King’s Cross to Kilburn Underground station – Kossoff found a focus for the lifeblood of the city. His paintings of these motifs, and of swimming pools, street scenes, markets and London’s buildings, form a vivid portrait of modern life in a great metropolis.
Kossoff’s fascination with London has been complemented by his parallel concern with people. The figure has been a central preoccupation. His subjects are members of his family, friends and models with whom he has forged close working relationships. His portraits of these individuals, and his intimate studies of the nude, are powerful and moving evocations of the human presence.

This catalogue was published to coincide with the Tate Gallery’s major retrospective exhibition of Kossoff’s work – the first survey of his career from the 1950s to the present. It reproduces in color every work in the exhibition and contains an illustrated essay by Paul Moorhouse, the exhibition’s curator, which explores in detail the development of Kossoff’s art. There is also a biographical chronology with archival photographs, and an extensive bibliography.