Golub, Leon (Albert) (1922- )

US painter. A political activist and artist, Golub creates narrative images that refer to current social issues such as sexism, racism, war, and politics; also common are references to violence and terror. His ability to capture a moment of drama is shown in his Gigantomachies series (large sculptural figure paintings of nude men fighting), and White Squad II (1982; Seattle Art Museum, Washington), which expressively depicts a victim with a gun at his head. Psychological and physical flashes are rendered on giant, unstretched canvases, to which thick layers of paint have been successively applied and then taken down with a meat cleaver, the resulting texture adding to the dramatic violence of the work.

Golub was born in Chicago, Illinois, and studied at the Chicago Art Institute (1949-50). Ignoring contemporary art movements, such as pop art and abstract expressionism, Golub has adhered mainly to figurative work of a political and narrative nature throughout his career. His work was particularly popular in the 1980s.