Anne Kutka McCosh

Anne Kutka McCosh

McCosh, Anne Kutka

Anne K. McCosh

Anne Kutka

Danbury 1902

painter

Northwest artist

Oregon artist

Anne Kutka studied and worked at the Art Students League in New York. The Van Courtland Express, painted in 1933, portrayed the subway she rode to art classes. The humorous Dressing Room, Klein's Department Store shows yet another aspect of the life she experienced in New York. When she married David McCosh in 1934 and moved to Eugene, she brought an East Coast urban perspective. Soon she was painting her new environment "shoulder to shoulder with the cornerstones of the regionalist movement." She stressed the characteristic features of the people and events of this college town.

In 1991 the University of Oregon sponsored a lifetime retrospective of her work. The catalog stated, "The art ... is a sensitive documentary of her life and times that spanned the burgeoning development of regionalism ... (it) draws us into her enthusiasm and admiration for life." Her Leaving the Lecture, Faculty Wives shows how she drew on real life experiences for inspiration. Its formal composition with underpainting, modeling and glazing is striking, but her emphasis is on what is going on inside the subjects, rather than outward appearance. She created more than 650 oils, drawings, watercolors and prints. She taught in her home studio and at the Maude Kerns Art Center for more than twenty years.

Artist biography reproduced with permission from the authors, Oregon Painters: the First Hundred Years (1859-1959), Ginny Allen and Jody Klevit.

Female

Spouse: David McCosh (American, 1903-1981)