Companions of Fear

Branden Koch
"Companions of Fear", 2018
Seven color silkscreen print on Strathmore 140# polar white paper
Edition 15/30
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the artist
2020.01.001

Borrowing his title from an ominous 1942 oil painting by the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte, Branden Koch converts Magritte’s growth of owls into a bouquet of open-mouthed cats. He says he was inspired by “cultural symbolism such as the hand-knit pussy hat, vagina dentata folklore ... and several current social political conditions on this planet we call home.” Much of the artist’s recent work has been created in response to American politics, from Drawing in a Time of Fear and Lies (2018) to Bald Ego (2017), a series that critic John Yau compared to the anti-Nixon cartooning of Philip Guston. This eight-screen silkscreen print was created from an original gouache painting. (DKS)

To watch our Virtual Tour of this piece, please click on the following link: Barrick Museum of Art Virtual Tour - Branden Koch.

Item Description:
A screen print depicting a cluster of green plant stalks topped with the heads and paws of screaming cats. These cats have angry yellow eyes. Their mouths are vertical ovals rimmed with jagged teeth. Their red and pink bodies stand out in contrast against a bright yellow sky.