Lot Essay
RELATED LITERATURE
E. Bryant, Models and Moments Paintings and Drawings by John Koch, New York, 1977, p. 29, no. 31, illus.
The artist and his models was a theme Koch returned to often throughout his career, using himself or fellow painters as subjects. Although the artist is sometimes captured directly in the act of painting, he is often looked at obliquely--a palette or easel and a glimpse in the work in progress. By the same token, Koch's models are almost always caught between "takes" rather than posing--talking on the telephone; in the process of dressing or undressing; reading a newspaper. These "commonplace moments between more significant activity" appear in deliberate contrast to the heroic art of the past (which often appears on the walls of Koch's paintings), and take place in the hermetic atmosphere of a studio in which "visitors, the telephone, the sunlight, and glimpses out the windows...are the few references to the world outside." (Bryant, p. 6)
The Accident No. 2 is an important departure from Koch's usual treatment of this theme. The act of painting has been interrupted but the artist and his model, instead of being shown in their typical reflective or self-absorbed activities, are seen in a rare moment of engagement with both each other and an external event. As Bryant observes, "Only once, in The Accident ...is this seal [between outside and inside world] broken, when both artist and model dash to open the window and see whatever ...has just happened in the street below."
Koch painted two versions of this subject. In The Accident No. 1 (The FORBES Magazine Collection, New York), which is smaller and less complex, the focus is on the painter and the model, whose figures fill the canvas. he Accident No. 2 takes in the entire studio, allowing the artist to indulge both himself and the viewer in a series of lush still life vignettes: the painter's palette; the drapery caught back by the brass lamp; the model's delicate slippers; and the flowered edge of the pillow glimpsed under the sensuously rumpled linens and red blanket.
E. Bryant, Models and Moments Paintings and Drawings by John Koch, New York, 1977, p. 29, no. 31, illus.
The artist and his models was a theme Koch returned to often throughout his career, using himself or fellow painters as subjects. Although the artist is sometimes captured directly in the act of painting, he is often looked at obliquely--a palette or easel and a glimpse in the work in progress. By the same token, Koch's models are almost always caught between "takes" rather than posing--talking on the telephone; in the process of dressing or undressing; reading a newspaper. These "commonplace moments between more significant activity" appear in deliberate contrast to the heroic art of the past (which often appears on the walls of Koch's paintings), and take place in the hermetic atmosphere of a studio in which "visitors, the telephone, the sunlight, and glimpses out the windows...are the few references to the world outside." (Bryant, p. 6)
The Accident No. 2 is an important departure from Koch's usual treatment of this theme. The act of painting has been interrupted but the artist and his model, instead of being shown in their typical reflective or self-absorbed activities, are seen in a rare moment of engagement with both each other and an external event. As Bryant observes, "Only once, in The Accident ...is this seal [between outside and inside world] broken, when both artist and model dash to open the window and see whatever ...has just happened in the street below."
Koch painted two versions of this subject. In The Accident No. 1 (The FORBES Magazine Collection, New York), which is smaller and less complex, the focus is on the painter and the model, whose figures fill the canvas. he Accident No. 2 takes in the entire studio, allowing the artist to indulge both himself and the viewer in a series of lush still life vignettes: the painter's palette; the drapery caught back by the brass lamp; the model's delicate slippers; and the flowered edge of the pillow glimpsed under the sensuously rumpled linens and red blanket.