Opdracht voor een illustratiecursus: maak iets geïnspireerd op het werk van een kunstenaar die je bewondert. Moeilijk kiezen, maar dichtbij huis in het Utrechtse Centraal Museum hangt Pyke Koch (1901-1991). Hij hoort tot de magisch realisten en in veel van zijn werk loert onheil. Ik hou het meest van zijn wat zonnigere werk, zoals De oogst.
For an illustration course we were asked to make a drawing taking the work of an admired artist for inspiration. In the Utrecht museum there is one artist whom I have always liked immensely: Pyke Koch (1901-1991). He belongs to the school of Magical Realists. Painters from this Dutch school painted realistically but there was always a sense of pending doomr. Actually I most love Koch for his romanticism - my absolute favorite painting being The Harvest.
Pyke Koch, the harvest
Voor de opdracht koos ik zijn beroemde Zelfportret met zwarte band. Zoals veel Utrechtse kunstenaars voor de oorlog flirtte Koch met het Italiaanse fascisme. Het is daarom een omstreden portret, maar erg krachtig en trots. En ja, een beetje eng.
Omdat ik onlangs 50 ben geworden en rimpels krijg en tegenwoordig mevrouw word genoemd, wilde ik mezelf net zo trots afbeelden. Maar die kille blik lukte niet helemaal.
For this week’s assignment however I chose his most famous painting, which is actually in Utrecht. It is his Self Portrait with Black Band. Like many Utrecht artists right before WWII he flirted with Mussolini and Strong Leaders. His self portrait is a historical document of romantical fascism. Apart from that it is immensely powerful. He looks very proud (OK, and a bit scary.)
Since I turned 50 last april and since I am getting a bit wrinkly and am coming to terms with that, or trying to, I wanted to do a self portrait too, with all my recent wrinkles, and I wanted it to be a copy of Koch’s proud image. Did not do too well on the cold look, though.
Pyke Koch, Zelfportret met zwarte band, Self portrait with black band, 1937
oil on tempera on panel
35 x 33 cm
Centraal Museum Utrecht, whose catalogue says: In the 1930s, Koch sought his painterly inspiration in the Italian masters of the early Renaissance. This is seen in the soft blue background and the build-up of cross-hatched shadows to create the three-dimensionality of the head. In light of the political situation at the time, the self-portrait immediately took on an unmistakable ideological significance. Published on the cover of the Kultuurkamer magazine, the publication that propagated fascist doctrine, the portrait was seen a a symbol for the ‘new man’. After the war, Koch always denied any political significance whatsoever in the portrait. He emphasized that it was about an exercise in painting, trying out the technique of oils on tempera.
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