(1926 - 2019)
Leon Kossoff was born to Russian Jewish parents in Islington, north London. In 1936, aged ten, Kossoff visited the National Gallery and was awestruck. He served in the army from 1945 to 1948. He studied at St Martin’s School of Art, attending evening classes under David Bomberg from 1948 to 1953 and completed his training at the Royal College of Art three years later. His work has been widely exhibited in Britain, Germany, the United States and China. He represented Britain at the 1995 Venice Biennale, his work touring to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. A major retrospective was held at the Tate Gallery in 1996 and an exhibition of his drawings made in response to paintings in the National Gallery, London, was held there in 2007.
