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Lot Essay
From 1972 until the middle of the decade, Kossoff occupied an additional studio in Dalston Lane, north London, close to the school he had attended in Hackney Downs. The views of the street market from his window echoed the bustling atmosphere of the markets he had seen in Brick Lane as a child. His principal subjects included Dalston Junction and the adjacent market; the view in the opposite direction looking towards Hackney with the German Hospital on the horizon; and also Dalston Lane.
London's rail system has occupied a special place in Kossoff's work. He has returned repeatedly to those physical features which have a dynamic or striking formal presence, but within these railway subjects is a suggestion of significance that transcends the purely visual ... there is an unprecedented emphasis on the commonplace and everyday, yet a corresponding intensification in the range of associations and experiences evoked (see P. Moorhouse, Leon Kossoff, Tate Gallery exhibition catalogue, London, 1996, p. 24).
London's rail system has occupied a special place in Kossoff's work. He has returned repeatedly to those physical features which have a dynamic or striking formal presence, but within these railway subjects is a suggestion of significance that transcends the purely visual ... there is an unprecedented emphasis on the commonplace and everyday, yet a corresponding intensification in the range of associations and experiences evoked (see P. Moorhouse, Leon Kossoff, Tate Gallery exhibition catalogue, London, 1996, p. 24).