Leon Golub: Bite Your Tongue

Serpentine Galleries presents Leon Golub: Bite Your Tongue at the Serpentine Gallery this spring. This survey exhibition of the American figurative painter, his first in London since 2000, will highlight key aspects of the artist’s oeuvre from the 1950s until his death in 2004.

Leon Golub was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1922 and died in New York City in 2004. In 1940 he won a scholarship to study Art History at the University of Chicago. His master’s programme was cut short in 1942 when he enlisted in the army and served as a cartographer in Europe. On his return in 1946, under the GI Bill, Golub began a Fine Art Degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received a BFA and MFA. During this time he met fellow student and artist Nancy Spero, whom he married in 1951. Both artists were members of the post-war artist’s group the Monster Roster. Golub, Spero and their children moved to Paris in 1959 and stayed until 1964 when they moved to New York City. This same year they became active members in the Artists and Writers Protest group against the Vietnam War. In the 1980s they were members of the movement Artists Call Against American Intervention in Latin America and remained anti-war activists throughout their lives.