John Koch – The Sculptor, 1964, The original title was “Prometheus”, altered by the artist himself to “The Sculptor”, Brooklyn Museum.
A deliciously lit sensuous entire-duration male nude dominates this sexually pulsating homoerotic painting by John Koch, an American painter in the realist design and style.
The typically-used product, Ernest Ulmer, casually leans from an easel or a whole-length mirror with his hand on the leading. His legs cross at the calf’s, he is comfy with his nudity and his nonchalant stance displays it. The slight line functioning all over the buttocks teasingly suggests a probable scant covering of genitals for a modicum of modesty. The sculptor (Koch himself) slants awkwardly and leans in to get a light for his cigarette. The flame is mirrored in both lenses of his glasses. An unseen light-weight source from the still left highlights the major of his head, his resting arm, and callipers. The sculptor retains a pair of callipers utilized for measuring. Below the callipers we see a wicker waste basket lined or loaded with paper.
In the background is a sculpture in progress surrounded by the paraphernalia of a sculptor’s tools and gear. It is dimly lit dark and foreboding, partly in shadow and partly witnessed in silhouette with some highlights. On the suitable-hand aspect, fifty percent found and obscured by the wooden frame we see a sepia drawing pinned to a board, a examine of eagles.
The sculpture in progress depicts the Greek legend of Prometheus, a Titan, not a god, who, defied the god Zeus and stole fireplace from Mount Olympus for the benefit of Mankind. Prometheus was a winner of humankind and is credited with providing arts and science to the environment (a fitting subject matter for an artist enjoying precariously with his track record) A terrible punishment was inflicted on Prometheus for his defiance. Prometheus is chained to a rock, and daily an eagle tears at his flesh to take in his Liver. Prometheus was immortal, his liver would regenerate for the torture to repeat, time and time once more. Finally, Prometheus revealed a solution to Zeus to gain an conclusion to his relentless torture and Hercules, despatched by Zeus, killed the fowl.
Prometheus and hearth and the artist getting a light from his design may be a mild pun or a further knowing and reference to guilt or acknowledgement of the hazards of his very own homosexual leanings. The references are not precisely subtle to modern eyes. Ulmer’s dominance and relished sexuality contrast with Koch’s awkwardness and subservient posture. The hand and arm that holds the artist’s cigarette fall provocatively in line with the model’s groin, the gesture of the cigarette, and the callipers a symbol of measuring sizing, pinching and gripping are also provocative references.
“Although this painting and other folks of his oeuvre pulsate with latent homosexual references from the figures in his paintings, there is very little to recommend that Koch himself experienced bisexual or homoerotic tendencies.
The posthumously published journals of Leo Lerman (1914-1994), a buddy of Koch’s and a matter in a number of paintings, produced reference to the artist as a homosexual, but there is no other literature or stories from his a lot of mates and students that corroborate this, and he was happily married, for practically 50 a long time, to Dora Zaslasky.”
