This is the fifth in a series of ARTicles featuring newly restored paintings on display at the freshly renovated Marshalltown Arts & Civic Center (MACC). Each month a different painting will be featured.

In 1958, Bill and Dorothy Fisher gifted Marshalltown an extraordinary legacy; a stunning mid-century modern community center and a world class art collection highlighting the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

After 55 years, the community center and collection were both in need of restoration. In 2017, the process began with the full support of the Fisher Family and the Fisher Governor Foundation. Committees were formed to write grants, digitize records, reach out to organizations and individuals for funding, and hire technical experts and consultants.

An on-site evaluation of the collection was completed the day before the EF3 tornado devastated the north side of Marshalltown and the appraisal of the collection was completed in 2018. A total of 44 artworks, (paintings and sculptures) were chosen for restoration.

In July 2020, the Chicago Conservation Center retrieved the identified works. The very next month, the community center, and much of Marshalltown, was decimated by a derecho.

Restoration of the art was completed in 2021, and the Fisher Art Museum opened in September 2022.

Currently on display are approximately half of the paintings from the Fisher Art Collection. The others are resting in climate-controlled storage and will be on view in 2025.

Today’s featured artist is John Koch (1909-1978). His painting Studio Interior is currently on view at the MACC.

A Realist painter and teacher born in Toledo, Ohio, Koch spent his childhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Along with Mary Cassatt, he is one of just two Americans represented in the collection.

An important figure in 20th century Realism, Koch is revered for his mastery of light and form. His preferred subjects were portraits, nudes and refined interiors, often of his own Manhattan apartment.

Koch first pursued his interest in painting at the art colony of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and then traveled to Paris, spending long stretches at the Louvre. He admired the work of the Old Masters, particularly Peter Paul Rubens. He joined the Internationale Union des Intellectuals, and though immersed in discussions of Surrealism, rejected the style’s influence on his own work. Upon settling in New York City, Koch developed a bustling social life, developing close relationships with Edward Hopper, Paul Cadmus, Reginald Marsh, and Alice Neel, whose portrait he painted. His first solo exhibition was in 1939 at the Kraushaar Galleries, where he continued to show his work for years to come. Koch’s work received awards from the National Academy of Design in 1952, 1959, 1962, and 1964. Partial to scenes of domestic intimacy, Koch frequently explored the relationship between models and the artist and conveyed a deep affection for objects through his still lifes. His personal art collection included paintings by John Singleton Copley, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Peter Paul Rubens, and Édouard Vuillard.

Bumping up against the rise of abstraction, Koch became a steadfast advocate for placing representational art in museum shows.

Large in scale and sublime in content, the oil on canvas painting Studio Interior (1961), exemplifies his mastery of light. In composition and subject matter, the painting is quintessentially Koch. While much creative energy flowed in this well-appointed room, it is captured in a moment of stillness.

See for yourself Koch’s Studio Interior and other treasures at the MACC. You will be glad you did. Call 641.758.3005 or visit www.maccia.org for more information.

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Nancy Adams is a member of the Fisher Art Museum Committee.