Leon Kossoff

Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London (acquired directly from the artist)
Acquired by the present owner from the above in June 1991

This work is in excellent confition overall. There is a tiny loss to the tip of a small area of blue paint 13 1/2 from the top and 10 1/2 in. from the left. On the top left edge there is evidence of old loss, possibly dating from the time of execution, located 1- 2 in. from the upper left corner. The work is slightly dusty overall. Under utraviolet light, there are no apparent restorations. The work is framed in a blonde wood strip frame.
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Dalston Spring Lane 1974 No. 2 is an emblematic work by Leon Kossoff that fully represents the paradigm of his extremely deep impasto style and his traditionally personal connection to his subject matter.  Born into the generation antecedent to the Abstract Expressionists, Kossoff was a prime member of the School of London, an art movement typically characterized by the densely worked canvases of Kossoff and colleagues such as Frank Auerbach and Lucian Freud. Over the decades, Kossoff painted the buildings and landscapes of his own environment, often revisiting these landmarks of his life in order to capture them on different days and in different lightings.  He was drawn not to the glamour of downtown London, but to the humility and comfort of the surrounding neighborhoods where he lived and worked. It has been said that, "he endows ordinary objects with the solemnity of an altarpiece" (Alistair Hicks, ed., Art of our Time: The Saatchi Collection, Edinburgh, ca. 1988, p. 32).

In 1972 Kossoff moved his workspace to a larger studio just north of London, in Dalston Lane. From his windows there, he studied the way the light reflected from the nearby buildings in the changing seasons, and he took note of his own emotional response to what he saw. He would work as though the camera had never been invented, attempting to capture fleeting moments of time and typically painting the same scene or place repeatedly. This is akin to the style and technique of Claude Monet, who also would return to the same scene countless times in order to record something real and solid out of an elusive, fleeting moment.

The idea of creating something of artistic importance out of a constant state of flux is made believable through the sheer physical significance of Dalston Lane Spring 1974 No. 2.  The heavily textured oils have a natural weight to them and the discernable traces of the brushwork across the large painted surface add an intimate and almost sensual quality to the work as the oil undulates across the painting in deep rolls and waves. A very personal moment for the artist has been translated into a painting of transcendent and tactile beauty.