Among a mass of moving figures, we see in Leon Kossoff’s Going Home the booking hall of Kilburn Underground Station. Executed in drypoint with additional etching and aquatint, the bold overlapping lines and thick tonal variations render the figures in constant motion and give the illusion of a cramped oppressive space inside the tube station. The elderly couple to the right of the image represent the artist’s parents, as also depicted in Kossoff’s Outside Kilburn Station, which illustrates the same subject matter. While the figures hastily embark on their individual journeys across London, for the artist, Kilburn was the final stop on the train. Born in east London but living and working in Kilburn, the artist continually probed London’s urban landscape as a source of inspiration, but no area as often as his home. Repeatedly depicting the subject in both print and paint for several years, Kossoff’s affinity with Kilburn is affectionately rendered throughout his oeuvre.
“London… seems to be in my blood stream. It's always moving – the skies, the streets, the buildings, the people who walk past me when I draw have become part of my life.” – Leon Kossoff
