Interlude is an oil-on-canvas work by mid-20th-century painter John Koch, that sits in the Memorial Art Gallery's permanent collection. It was completed in 1963 in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. It is one of Koch's many known works featuring himself and a nude model in-studio. Interlude along with other pieces such as The Sculptor (1964), and Painter and Models (1972) present the theme of a scene in which artist and model are in the midst of taking a break. Nakedness of the model is still portrayed, but in an unprompted and naturalistic state different from whatever artificial pose they might have been posing in. The model is alongside Koch before his unfinished canvas, in his high end domestic space — a fourteen-room apartment on Central Park West. An interaction between Koch and the model, or the model and another subject, is customarily caught in frame. Interlude depicts Koch's wife, Dora Zaslavsky, handing the model a cup of tea for example. This unique take on the nude portrait is a stand out feature of Koch's body of work. In addition to subject matter, Koch's painting style reflects traditional European Realism, somewhat of a rare sight in post-war American Expressionism.
Description
In John Koch's Interlude, a large oil on canvas work, there are three figures, a white man and woman and a black woman - John Koch, his wife Dora Zaslavsky, and model Rosetta Howard. Koch occupies space in the farthest layer of the composition, sitting back on a couch with a drink in one hand and the other propped up, his eyes focused on a tall canvas turned away from the viewer and lit by a single lamp. Dora wears a plain floor length quilted robe, occupying the middle ground, a gentle polite smile on her face with downturned eyes that are probably focused on the white teacup and saucer she is handing to the model. Koch's inclusion of this bright crimson creates a visual focus, and perhaps even a point of contrast to separate Howard's figure from the mostly brown tones she is composed within. Howard is completely nude and occupying the foreground, facing away from the viewer so that only her back, the top of her buttocks, and her outstretched arm reaching for the teacup is visible. Her hair is either short or pinned up, making the expanse of her back a prominent and outstanding part of the overall composition - a second central focal point. Interlude is realistic due to its soft brushstrokes and use of lighting. There is no outright abstraction or experimentation with color, viewers are visually transported to the warmly lit room in which the scene in question takes place. The artist creates a highly detailed rendering through a small patch of yellow light on the wooden floor in the mid-ground, to the carefully painted creasing of the white sheets, where the nude woman sits. In addition to brushstrokes and lighting, Interlude has a sharp foreground to background compositional layout that acts almost like a window into the painting, elevating the viewer's visual experience. From foreground to background, the viewer is closest to Howard looking into a room that ends with a large mirror on the furthest wall – a mirror that reflects windows on the invisible fourth wall, or the area from which we view the scene. The windows contain architecture-like shapes that suggest a world beyond the confines of the room, and the cool blue light they let in clearly indicates the primary light source of the painting. Use of the fourth wall adds to the composition's sharp foreground to background compositional layout, thus confirming its definitive use of realism. In its entirety, this painting is a scene caught in motion, the moment a teacup is handed to a body leaning forward, possibly from a position previously held for the working artist in the background. It is the moment the artist takes a break and leans back to observe what he had been working on – a pregnant pause disturbed by sheets ruffling, the shuffling of feet on the wooden floor, and the clink of a teacup in its saucer.
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