'Self-Portrait. Verso: Untitled (Two Figures)', Leon Kossoff

Artwork details

Artist

Leon Kossoff (born 1926)

Title

Self-Portrait. Verso: Untitled (Two Figures)

Date 1967

MediumCharcoal on paper. Verso: charcoal on paper

Dimensionssupport: 763 x 556 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Presented by Jenny Stein 1986

Reference

T04855

Not on display

Display caption

Throughout his career Kossoff has made portrait drawings. Usually these are of family, friends or, as in this case, himself. Kossoff was a student of David Bomberg (whose work is also on show here). Bomberg maintained that there could be no good painting without drawing. In common with Bomberg, drawing is a crucial activity for Kossoff and he draws constantly from the landscape and the figure. Here, the heavily worked surface has been repeatedly erased and re-drawn. This records the artist's many previous attempts to give form to a final definitive image, which is usually executed in one session. The portrait is thus spontaneous, but also founded on accumulated experience of the subject.

September 2004