Leon Kossoff

Luhring Augustine, in partnership with the Leon Kossoff Estate, is delighted to present an exhibition of works by the celebrated British artist, opening in our Chelsea location on April 16, 2026. Bringing together paintings from across Kossoff's career, the exhibition will offer one of the most substantial presentations of the artist's work to be held in New York in recent decades. In conjunction with the exhibition, Luhring Augustine will publish a fully illustrated catalogue featuring a specially commissioned essay by the acclaimed critic, Hilton Als. A leading figure of postwar British art, Leon Kossoff (1926-2019) developed a practice that was grounded in close observation and a repeated engagement with his subjects through drawing and painting. Working primarily from life, he produced portraits of family, friends, and sitters from his immediate circle alongside views of North and East London – rail stations, schools, streets, and sites of daily life. Characterized by their material density and structural rigor, his paintings, no matter how big or small, are acts of sustained spontaneity.