In 1999, the Getty Museum invited Leon Kossoff to create drawings after the works by Nicolas Poussin that reside in the Getty’s collection. The museum even went so far as to loan the Poussin works to the National Gallery in London, allowing Kossoff to visit and sit with these Old Master paintings at his own pace, without having to travel far from his London home.

The work above is just one of the drawings that culminated from this initiative (below is the actual work by Poussin “Landscape with a Calm.”

As a result, the Getty presented an exhibition of Kossoff’s Poussin drawings, which were featured alongside the original Poussin paintings at the museum in 2000. John Walsh, former director of the Getty Museum and organizer of the exhibition, said, “Kossoff manages to translate Poussin’s radiant landscapes into his personal language of impulsive gestures and simplified forms. He honors Poussin and, at the same time, he makes a fresh and independent body of new work. Like Degas and Picasso, he’s never been too proud–even now, as a world-famous artist himself–to copy and struggle and learn.”

We are thrilled to have John Walsh in conversation with L.A. Louver’s founding director Peter Goulds, as they discuss Leon Kossoff’s works after the Old Masters at L.A. Louver on Tuesday, Feb 11. The talk will be moderated by art critic and journalist, Hunter Drohojowska-Philp.

To rsvp to the event, please call (310) 822-4955 or email rsvp@lalouver.com

Visit our website for more information.

IMAGES: (top) Leon Kossoff, “Landscape with Calm No. 1,” 1999, compressed charcoal & pastel on paper; (bottom) Nicolas Poussin, “Landscape with a Calm,” 1650-1651, oil on canvas (Courtesy J. Paul Getty Museum)