Provenance
Fischer Fine Art, Ltd., London
Charles Saatchi, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in the late 1980s
Exhibited
Oxford, Museum of Modern Art; Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, Leon Kossoff: Paintings from a Decade 1970 - 1980, May 24 - August, 30, 1981, no. 41, p. 39 (illustrated)
Aachen, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst; Kunstverein Mannheim; Chur, Bündner Kunstmuseum; Kunstverein Braunschweig, 13 British Artists: A Painting Exhibition, December 5, 1981 - September 9, 1982, p. 51 (illustrated)
New Delhi, Lalit Kala Akademi; Mumbai, Jehangir Nicholson Museum of Modern Art, The Proper Study, December 1, 1984 - February 28, 1985, no. 37, p. 99 (illustrated)
London, Tate Gallery, Leon Kossoff, June 6 - September 1, 1996, no. 37, p. 99 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
"The fabric of my work through the last forty years has been dependent on those people who have so patiently sat for me, each one uniquely transforming my space by their presence." Leon Kossoff

Executed in 1980, Two seated Figures no.1 (My Parents) is a seemingly intimate and poignant portrait of Leon Kossoff's aging parents. Kossoff’s brushwork and application of medium have always stood as defining characteristics of his work, and here his typically thick impasto lends the painting an impressive physical immediacy. Drawing is an essential, an obsessive and indispensable aspect of his practice. Kossoff always begins his paintings with an exploration of the subject through life-drawing. This initial impression is the only method of truly conveying what he sees, feels and perceives from his sitters. Maintaining the same reality of feeling that is reflected in his drawing or sketches, Kossoff's paintings have the same immediacy as his preparatory works on paper. His achievements in drawing translate elegantly into the paintings Kossoff made of his family, illustrating the heartfelt familial relation between sitters and artist. However, upon further scrutiny the viewer begins to understand that while this is a depiction of the artist’s parents, Kossoff’s depiction of them informs the viewer more generally about Kossoff’s understanding of the effects of time, love and age than it does about the individual natures of his parents.

Included in two travelling exhibitions organized by The British Council as well as in the artist’s defining retrospective at the Tate, Two seated Figures no. 1 (My Parents) is a stunning example of the poignancy and beauty that is inherent to the work of Leon Kossoff. The earth-bound mortality of his parents is manifested throughout the swirling arcs of paint, and the skeins of tonality that envelope the composition. All of Kossoff’s painterly technique and draftsman’s eye for the immediate are on prominent display in this superb painting, Two seated Figures no. 1 (My Parents).

Property from a Distinguished Private British Collection

Ο28

Leon Kossoff

Two seated Figures no.1 (My Parents)

1980
oil on board
48 x 60 1/4 in. (121.9 x 153 cm)

Estimate
$350,000 - 450,000

Sold for $737,000

Contact Specialist
Kate Bryan
Head of Evening Sale
New York
+ 1 212 940 1267

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 8 May 2016

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Mike Kelley
Memory Ware #37
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Klara Lidén
Untitled (Poster Painting)
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Christopher Wool
Untitled
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Cavaliere
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Jean Dubuffet
Barbe des rites
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Louise Bourgeois
Untitled (The Wedges)
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Mark Bradford
Building "The Big White Whale"
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Mark Bradford
Mixed Signals
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Mark Bradford
Untitled (Corner of Desire and Piety) III
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10
Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #5A
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11
Albert Oehlen
Lämmle live
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12
Martin Kippenberger
Plusquamperfekt - gehabt haben (Past Perfect - have had)
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Anselm Kiefer
Der Wolken heitere Stimmung
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Günther Förg
Untitled
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15
Glenn Ligon
Stranger in the Village #11
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16
On Kawara
Four Decades (OCT.13, 1970 / MAY 7, 1980 / NOV.22, 1990 / APR.16, 2000)
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17
Brice Marden
Star (for Patti Smith)
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18
Christopher Wool
Untitled
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
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Marlene Dumas
Night Nurse
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René Daniëls
Eindelijk
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21
John Currin
Angela
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Maurizio Cattelan
Mini-me
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23
Jeff Koons
Jim Beam - Passenger Car
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24
Yayoi Kusama
INFINITY-NETS (QRTWE)
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Jeff Koons
Naked
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Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
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27
Sherrie Levine
The Cradle
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28
Leon Kossoff
Two seated Figures no.1 (My Parents)
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $737,000
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Roy Lichtenstein
Metallic Brushstroke Head
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Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
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Willem de Kooning
Tattooed Lady
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Willem de Kooning
Stenographer
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33
This lot is no longer available.
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Takeo Yamaguchi
Work
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Joe Bradley
Mouth and Foot (Cock and Balls)
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Nate Lowman
White Escalade
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Sterling Ruby
SP25
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KAWS
Untitled
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20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 8 May 2016

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Provenance

Exhibited

Catalogue Essay

Ο28

Leon Kossoff

Two seated Figures no.1 (My Parents)

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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