Pyke Koch

Pyke Koch and the painter Carel Willink are considered to be the foremost representatives in the Netherlands of Magic Realism, a style of painting in which the scenes depicted seem realistic yet uncanny or unlikely.

Some art historians, notably Carel Blotkamp, have suggested that these details may contain hidden messages and references to his personal life.

He was very much inspired by painters of the Italian quattrocento, most notably the work of Piero della Francesca.

Pyke Koch was born in Beek, a small village near Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

This first painting made an impression on the painter Cor Postma who arranged for Koch to be part of several exhibitions in the following years in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Strangely, from the very start his paintings were admired for their technical perfection, even though he had had no formal training.

He was most impressed with the painters of the Italian Renaissance Piero della Francesca, Masaccio and Andrea Mantegna.

His house in Utrecht (Oude Gracht 341) became a regular meeting place for many Dutch writers, painters and designers.

During the years he spent in Italy, where Heddy and Pyke had a bed & breakfast in Fiesole for a while, Koch started to admire Mussolini.

Koch became a member of Verdinaso but renounced it when it merged with the Dutch Nazi party NSB.

He had a retrospective solo exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1955 and in the Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem in 1966.

As his physical and mental abilities declined, he gradually withdrew from public life.