Ghosts of Lukas Van Leyden
Year 1950
Artist Otto Bach (1909-1990, American)
Media casein tempera on panel
Dimensions 9 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches
Otto Karl Bach was born in Chicago on May 26, 1909. He was well educated, studying at Dartmouth College and the University of Paris, Brevet before earning his MA from the University of Chicago. Otto Bach served for 30 years as the Director of the Denver Art Museum (1944–1974) and taught art history courses at the University of Denver from 1946 to the 1960s. Bach was a modernist painter, though he refrained from promoting his own work while at the Denver Art Museum. Although he did not exhibit often, he did eventually join the 15 Colorado Artists, a group who broke with the Denver Artists Guild in order to focus on and promote modernism. The painting pictured, Ghosts of Lukas van Leyden, is a testament to Bach’s own knowledge of the history of art as it references Mohammed and the Monk Sergius (1508) by Flemish engraver Lukas van Leyden.
ON VIEW in Art Deco Gallery 6
Signature Signed "OTTO BACH" lower right corner
Accession Number 1991.0001
