Framed: 37 1/2 x 31 3/4 inches
artist
It has been noted many times by critics and writers that John Koch's work, in his upper Manhattan apartment, was one of grown ups socializing in a well to do milieu. This appeared to be true and yet what has made the art of John Koch so perpetually interesting, are all the other nuances and asides mixed in to this environment.
John Koch was a figurative artist in modernist times. So it would naturally follow that his work would not be relative to a movement or group of the twentieth century but very much an "oeuvre" all its own. He tended to depict visitors and friends to his Manhattan apartment who engaged in conversation against the backdrop of a well appointed and tasteful home. His most controversial works are his depictions of couples in intimate situations. Koch was especially adept at painting nudes in interiors, which is a subject that could be analyzed, written about and speculated on, rather extensively. He was known to do portraits and it may have been these works which brought him his financial solidity.
provenance
Julianna Force, first Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art
Private Collection Jeff and Madeline Grant, New York until 2005