Emil Kosa, Jr. was born in Paris, France. The artist moved to the United States with his family at age four and his art studies were begun as a teenager at the Prague Academy and continued at the California Art Institute in Los Angeles (1927), followed by the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (1927-28) under French artist Franz Kupka, one of the pioneers of abstraction in modern painting. This provided Mr. Kosa with a firsthand encounter with Modernism. A prolific painter in oils and watercolors, Mr. Kosa specialized in contemporary views of downtown Los Angeles. He worked in the motion picture business from the 1930s to the 1960s as an artist for Twentieth Century Fox Studios and in 1963 won an Oscar for his work on “Cleopatra.” He taught at the Chouinard Art Institute. In addition to painting watercolors, he painted with oil, produced several murals, and wrote articles for national art magazines. Emil Kosa Jr. decorated churches, theaters, and private homes and often taught in nearby Laguna Beach. Emil Kosa Jr. died in Los Angeles on November 4, 1968.
He was a member of the American Watercolor Society, and the California Watercolor Society.