The painting Construction in New York, depicting a building site in front of soaring skyscrapers, should not be viewed with the eyes of the well-travelled modern tourist. Today these architectural wonders of technology seem like a global mass product. For Josef Floch, however, Manhattan must have been a staggering sight and once again this different style of architecture became the focus of his paintings.
In 1951 he created a sequence of paintings on the subject ‘construction site’, although the surrounding buildings dominate the image, both in terms of scale and by excluding all human presence with the exception of the small worker. Our vantage point is low, although revealingly not from Floch’s rooftop terrace, and we look up to two skyscrapers in different styles. In front of this, like a small pedestal, we can make out the outlines of an old building with classical forms. In the foreground the building pit alludes to further imminent change. As a result, we can interpret the picture’s subject as a comparison between old and new – in parts the old building is covered by an almost blood-red shade, which must surely be a symbol of transience.
By broadly applying areas of colour, as if with a palette knife, leaving some places on the picture’s ground exposed and softening the hard outlines, Floch has achieved a fascinating contrast between the solid lines of a constructed world and painterly blurring that challenges this static equilibrium. This contrast is heightened by the intensity of the colours and a juxtaposition of cool blue and white with fiery red and earthy brown. Floch’s compelling expressive power arises from this carefully considered combination of colour, form and pictorial message.

Marianne Hussl-Hörmann

Literature: Karl Pallauf: Josef Floch. Leben und Werk 1894 – 1977. Österreichischer Kunst– und Kulturverlag. Vienna 2000, p. 293, cat. rais. no. 465. – Maximilian Gauthier 1952, Tafel XVIII.