The Koch Studio And About John Koch

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• The inspiration painting (I had a smaller photo while painting):

John Koch

American

1909-1978

End of the Day

• 12 June 2011 : more about John Koch on the net today:

No periodo de 16 de Outubro de 2001 a 27 de Janeiro de 2002 a ‘NewYork Historical Society”organizou uma exposição à volta de JohnKoch, pintor realista e retratista desconhecido para o Mundo, mas não desconhecido em Nova York, cidade que ele documentou através da sua arte, durante os anos 50, 60 e início de 70.
Com efeito, John Koch (1909-1978) resistente do realismo num período dominado pelo Expressionismo Abstracto e pela “feira das vaidades” e os egocentrismos decadentes de Warwhol, deixou-nos testemunhos detalhados dum mundo NovaYorquino de artistas, modelos, interiores do seu elegante apartamento com vista para Central Park e ambientes com a sua mulher Dora Zalavsky, professora de piano …
John Koch era em grande parte um artista auto-didacta, com 4 anos de auto formação em Paris, copiando pinturas no Louvre … no entanto ele conseguiu viver com estilo e qualidade através do que ganhava com os seus retratos, desenvolvendo um verdadeiro ‘Salon’ cultural sofisticado, que ele tão bem documentou … e que constituiu um verdadeiro ‘oásis’ … in http://tattookayu.blogspot.com/2010/07/john-koch-new-york-life.html

• Which says grossly the same like the following:

Published to accompany a major exhibition exemplifying John Koch’s finest works from the 1950s to the 1970s, this is the first book to explore the life and work of this self-taught artist, renowned for his painting of New York life. Spending over 4 years in Paris studying classic works at the Louvre, he developed a formidable technique, evident in his beautiful rendering of the light playing on surfaces. According to those who knew him, John Koch composed his persona as carefully as he arranged his still lifes and interiors. His wife, Dora Zaslavsky, was an esteemed piano coach, and together they created a private world, as Koch wrote, ‘out of the substance of the city’. Typified by his interest in the interaction between people and the space around them, as well as the interplay of music and art, Koch’s work resisted the prevalent trend towards abstraction. Instead it recorded members of John and Dora’s circle (artists, writers and musicians), who participated in the European-style salon as an oasis of high culture and refinement in New York City.

• A testimony:http://fieldspunthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/02/oh-brooklyn-brooklyn-take-me-in-are-you.html :

… I think of the John Koch paintings I’ve posted the last couple of days. You know, those particular images are remarkable – the furnishings in the apartment are configured quite like that, and you and I don’t look so different from the depicted figures.

I really like that painter. I was never aware of him, but one weekend afternoon in the weeks following 9/11 D and I visited the New-York Historical Society on Central Park West…

…But what I do remember to this day was a ravishing exhibition, room after room, of paintings of an artist I had never heard of, John Koch, and who really, I haven’t heard of since, though of course I don’t travel in art circles so much. Anytime I wish to think of him I’ve forgotten his name and have to do awkward google searches to recollect it.

The exhibit was called John Koch: Painting a New York Life, and indeed it was canvas after exquisite, colorful, realistic canvas of scenes of his fully and richly lived life in a capacious, lightfilled Manhattan apartment, with his wife, and soaring views from their windows, and lovely furnishings, and a grand piano – so beautiful. The paintings were fairly large, as I recall – say, window size – so it was like peeping (invited) into their windows and vicariously luxuriating in sublime afforded glimpses within. I’ve always been drawn to scenes like that, and indeed (maybe especially in Brooklyn, because the apartment we lived in was gorgeous and in excellent repair) have tried to emulate in whatever fashion I can that way of being. Flowers on a table, happy cats, music on the stereo, the cast of golden light on the surroundings at the end of a day, a nice drink, a kiss right now for you, my darling…

Those resplendent paintings, with their quietly elegant, peaceful, beautiful subject matter, were a welcome balm at any time whatsoever, but perhaps especially in the wake of the recent destruction, ruin, wreckage, and devastation, a clear blue sky filled sunny day turned horrible. No, here was permission again to enjoy the quiet moments, the slant of light, a loved one, a harmonious domestic space, one’s carefully chosen and cared for belongings…

Anyway.

Stella the Artist just came on and I caught it – oh, yeah!

Many kisses, my love.

• Another kind of testimony : http://tomswope.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

The last floor I visited was the first floor, which is dedicated to American paintings and among the usual suspects, an O’Keefe or two, and the rest, I spied this odd ball gem below.

Vermont Marble Quarry, about 1941
John Koch, American, 1909-1978, oil on canvas.

While not widely known and perhaps not a great painter, I find the barely repressed homo-eroticism of John Koch’s paintings very attractive. He belonged to a moment in time, married, he spent much of his time in Provincetown, Mass., and lived for a time in Paris where he learned to paint. I came across him first when I was working for Robert Miller, when he handled a very sexy painting of the artist and his model, a nude young man who was lighting the artists cigarette. I had never heard of him before and come across his paintings rarely; thus I think it worthy of note. Art does not have to be “great” to be very satisfying. This is one such example I fear. See the detail below to get a sense of why I like Koch’s work.

Detail of John Koch, Vermont Marble Quarry.

Koch’s male figures are just plain sexy hunks, his female figures exert none of the pull they do. Perhaps that is just me, but I think it reflects his own interest, the woman are covers for the homo erotic feeling that pervades the canvas.

• The museum link:  John Koch: Painting a New York Life

• What I knew during the painting of the Studio

I don’t know anything about this painter. I tried to find a better resoltolution of his painting on the Internet but couldn’t even find again this one I called “The Studio”. I love it it just like my studio (I live in a old style flat in Budapest with the same kind of furniture).

If someone know this painting and the surname of Koch can he kindly comment this post? I found several Koch who could be the good one: David Koch, Philippe Koch I think….

A sort of essay i like: Current link between John Kosh and Antic Eros:

http://maletomalefeeling.com/imageofbody.html