Every summer for the past 78 years, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown has presented the National Midyear Exhibition.
Over the years, the Butler has added to its already impressive collection of American paintings with work from these exhibitions, and such is the case with this month’s painting: Music (Mrs. John Koch and Abbey Simon) by John Koch (1909-1978) from the 1962 National Midyear Exhibition.
John Koch had a very successful career. His first show was a sell-out, but he is not really that well known today outside of New York City. When you do discover him, however, you know you have found a really fine painter.
Abbey Simon (born 1922) is recognized as a true virtuoso of the piano and, as such, was never cheap or flashy. Such is the case with John Koch as well.
This work is a wonderful use of one hue (yellow) giving us the feeling we are seeing a full spectrum. The space implied is complex, yet not disharmonious. The rich observation of edges and values gives us a palpable sense of light.
Koch defined his work as a realist painter: “I have great affection for ... dishonored subject matter ... (because of) the arbitrary ... way in which it has been dismissed. Have the sensuous, the lyrical elements really been expelled from modern life? Of course not. Is modern man exclusively occupied with his own tragic plight, his neuroses, his destruction? This ... is as much the sentimentality of our day as was the sweetness and light for which we so tirelessly berate the Victorians.”
Mrs. John Koch, born Dora Zaslavsky (1905-1987), was a highly regarded piano coach and, in 1920, the first graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. Together, the couple assembled a fascinating group of gracious and cultured friends in their home overlooking Central Park. Koch found many of his subjects in this vibrant group.
Nationally renowned local artist Michael McEwan teaches painting and drawing classes at his Clintonville area studio.
