Kossoff was born in 1926 in Islington, London. After completing military service with Royal Fusiliers, he attended St Martin’s School of Art from 1949 to 1953 and met fellow artist Frank Auerbach. He then studied at Royal College of Art before teaching at Regent Street Polytechnic, Chelsea School of Art, and St Martin’s School of Art. He was awarded a prize at the 1961 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition.
Kossoff completed his series of swimming pool paintings when he moved his studio to Willesden Green in 1966. When occupying an additional studio in Dalston Lane, he worked on paintings of Dalston Junction and Ridley Road Street Market between 1972 and 1975. Twenty years later, he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. There was a retrospective exhibition at Tate Gallery, London in 1996 and two more between 2004 and 2005 at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark and Museum of Art, Switzerland. Kossoff died in July 2019 in London at the age of 92.