PAINTINGS BY
MICHAEL KUCH

A SPHINX'S FIELD GUIDE

Approaching the turn of the millennium, Kuch was inspired to create the sculpture, Sphinx in Bloom, which has rested in front of the R. Michelson Galleries building in Northampton for several years. Kuch was intrigued by the idea of juxtaposing antiquity's timeless, stone icons with the ever ephemeral flower. The nature of Time continues to be a perennial theme for Kuch. Perceptions of time shift as we travel through it. Using Sphinx in Bloom as a jumping off point, Kuch has created a new series of images juxtaposing the ageless sphinx (Egyptian and Greek as well as an Assyrian) with an array of evanescent elements - flowers, moth wings and clouds. To Kuch, the question is not whether Time is fleeting or infinite, but a puzzling answer of it being both at once.

COMMON MONSTERS

Outlandish fauna are artfully observed & illuminated by Michael Kuch. From the American Imperialist Moth, Pax americana to the Fat-Man Stealth Bat, Papilla terror, this natural history surveys the salient creatures of our current political landscape.

FALLING TO EARTH

The book’s imagery uses the metaphor of falling to look at the human & spiritual costs of violence. Mythological & biblical narratives are evoked in a modern framework that gives perspective to the terrifying events of last year. Icarus, Jacob’s ladder & parachuting Christs descend in our new millenium. The fourteen poems & twenty-one etchings are also frequented by angels providing a vantage from above. Though the imagery does not shy from a hard look at the human toll of human violence, the work is not concerned with a world of blame, but instead hopes to unfold as a kind of topographical map of healing.

ORCHID ANGELS

[VIEW THE PAINTINGS]

NEAR MYTHS

Near Myths is a series of images reinterpreting ancient Greek myths in a modern framework. In loose ink-wash drawings and small lost-wax bronzes, Kuch shows these citizens of the clouds in non-heroic poses. Absent of most of the requisite narrative content, these drawings of old deities act more like portraits than like traditional grand mythological paintings. Stripped of color and exorbitant detail, the images reflect a more humble version of godly omnipotence. With humor and intensity, Kuch revisits the complicated myths of the past to shed light on our complicated and capricious times.

All works on paper are drawn with sumi ink on handmade watercolor paper from the Velke Losiny Mill in the Czech Republic, except for 17 to 20, which are on Arches 300 lb. watercolor paper. The bronzes are cast by the lost wax method at the Bedi-Makky Foundry in Brooklyn, New York.