Charlotte Higgins visits with painter Leon Kossoff on the occasion of the exhibiton Leon Kossoff: London Landscapes at Annely Juda Fine Art, London, on view from May 8 – July 6, 2013. The show will be on view at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York from November 5 – December 21, 2013.

Higgins writes: "It seems that Kossoff has frequently been drawn to landscapes that suggest a state of transition: either because they are undergoing literal change, such as the St Paul's building site; or because they are, like tube stations or railway lines, the zone of humans on the move. Christ Church, Spitalfields, which he painted for years, its facade looming monumentally, and miraculously (in his paintings at least) failing to topple despite itself, is a rare example of something that might be regarded as a 'view' in the conventional sense."