Soutine | Kossoff Catalogue (paperback)

This beautifully illustrated book is the first to bring together two major figures of 20^th century painting: the Belarus-born artist Chaim Soutine (1893-1943) and British painter Leon Kossoff (1926-2019). These two highly individual artists - one a master of the School of Paris, the other a master of the School of London - shared a fascination for the human predicament and a lifelong desire to express their feelings in paint. Kossoff | Soutine focuses primarily on landscape and portraiture, areas of interest shared by both painters. Among the works included are some that are internationally famous and others that have rarely been exhibited or reproduced before.

In the first introductory essay exhibition curator James Russell examines the push and pull of similarity and difference between two artists who shared a deep reverence for the history of European painting and an unshakeable belief in the continuing value of exploring the world, and their feelings about the world, in paint. In the second, art historian Simonetta Fraquelli sets this artistic relationship in context, exploring the processes by which Soutine’s paintings came to influence and inspire a generation of painters on both sides of the Atlantic.

Featuring details of works by both artists, this book brings to life two vibrant artistic personalities - contrasting personalities in some ways, but with fascinating similarities. Though very different in approach and style, both Soutine and Kossoff created transcendent works of art from the stuff of everyday life.

James Russell is an art historian and curator with a particular interest in 20^th century British art. For Hastings Contemporary he has curated exhibitions including Seaside Modern: Art and Life on the Beach (2021) and Seafaring (2022). Previous exhibitions include Ravilious (Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2015), Reflection: British Art in an Age of Change (Ferens Art Gallery, 2019) and Changing Times: 100 Years of Modern British Art (Higgins Bedford, 2022). Having read History at Pembroke College, Cambridge, James has written numerous books on artists including Eric Ravilious, Paul Nash, Peggy Angus and Parisian illustrator Lucien Boucher.

Simonetta Fraquelli is an art historian and curator specialising in early twentieth-century art, with a focus on artists working in Paris. For over twenty years she worked at the Royal Academy of Arts, London on a range of exhibitions from Italian Art of the Twentieth Century (1989) to Giorgio Armani (2004).  Since 2006 she has collaborated with several leading European and American museums.  Her exhibitions include Chagall, Modern Master (Kunsthaus Zürich and Tate Liverpool, 2013), Modigliani (Tate Modern, London 2017–18, with Nancy Ireson) and Soutine/de Kooning - Conversations in Paint (Barnes Foundation,