Leon Golub, with Jon Bird, Samm Kunce and Satish Padiyar

Leon Golub (Chicago, 1922 – 2004) is considered a central figure in North American art from the 1940s on, although his work often ran counter to official currents. His rejection of the autonomy and isolation of the artist, as espoused by abstract expressionism, led him to develop a new approach to the painting of contemporary history. Leon Golub does not just portray the world; he comments on it, he embodies it and he attacks it from the outside, using the body as a territory of conflict and political violence.

Participants:

Jon Bird, professor at Middlesex University in London, author of Leon Golub: Echoes of the Real (2000) and curator of the exhibition Leon Golub (Museo Reina Sofía, May 5th – September 12th, 2011).
Samm Kunce, community artist who deals with the inheritance of Leon Golub’s work in Chicago.
Satish Padiyar, professor at London's Courtauld Institute of Art and author of Chains, David, Canova and the Fall of the Public Hero in Postrevolutionary France (2007).