- Born
- Died
- Leon Golub was born on January 21, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was married to Nancy Spero. He died on August 8, 2004 in New York City, New York, USA.
- SpouseNancy Spero(December 1951 - August 8, 2004) (his death, 3 children)
- Artist who depicted scenes of war, torture and oppression in large-scale figurative paintings. Golub drew upon material ranging from Greek sculpture to mass media photography and developed a technique of scraping the first layer of paint from a canvas, leaving a blistered surface.
- His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Gallery in London.
- Golub's early work featured figures of kings, shamans or monsters, followed by a period heavily influenced by classical models, including a series entitled "Gigantomachies" portraying wrestlers in combat.
- An opponent of the Vietnam war, Golub created "Vietnam II" in 1973, a sprawling 40-feet-wide painting depicting American soldiers shooting down Vietnamese. He later created more than 30 portraits based on photos of powerful public figures including President Nixon and Fidel Castro. Later works, including his "Interrogation" and "Mercenaries" series, show images of torture and violence.
- Earned a graduate degree from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1950. He lived in Paris before moving to New York in the 1960s. Taught at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
- (June 2001) "Too many people have a sort of protective attitude about art. You know, 'Don't touch. It's valuable.' I'm trying to be more in your face, like when you walk down the street and suddenly you encounter a situation. I'm trying to invite you into scenes where you might not want to be invited in."
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