John Koch: Painter as Revealer of Life at LiveAuctionTalk.com Rosemary McKittrick is a storyteller. Her weekly column brings the world of collecting to life. Photo courtesy of Brunk Auctions.
News-Antique.com - Jul 26,2009 - Santa Fe, July 26, 2009 -- John Koch was the kind of realist painter who recorded the scenes in his life not in a diary but in his oil paintings. He lived in the El Dorado, a 14 room art deco, apartment building overlooking Central Park in New York. His place was full of antique furniture, paintings, and whatnots he liked to include in his art work.
Koch used the massive windows, spectacular views, full light and grand furnishings as backdrops. It was an upper-class take on life--everything in its place and a place for everything. He painted the kind of social scene where most people might feel pretty awkward--the men in black tie and the women in evening dress listening to piano recitals.
The way Koch displayed pieces in a room, it was clear he understood antiques and fine furnishings as much as he understood the technique for painting them. His warm tones and colors invite the audience into his rooms.
A largely, self-taught painter, Koch was born in 1909 in Toledo, Ohio. He attended two summers at the artists' colony at Provincetown, Mass., where he was influenced by Charles Hawthorne’s work. He died in 1978.
For the most part, Koch’s art was ignored in his lifetime. He painted in an era when abstract expressionism was the norm.
On May 9, Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina, featured an oil on canvas by Koch called “The Plasterers”. The painting depicts two men repairing the walls of Koch’s apartment.
The 1967, 40 inch by 49 7/8 inch oil sold for $210,000. Included with the oil were six pencil and chalk preparatory sketches.
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