Fairfield Porter | |
|---|---|
 Porter's painting "Under the Elms," 1971-72. | |
| Born | June 10, 1907 Winnetka, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | September 18, 1975 (aged 68) Southampton, New York, U.S. |
| Education | Harvard University, Art Students' League |
| Known for | Painting, art criticism |
| Movement | New York Figurative Expressionism |
Fairfield Porter (June 10, 1907 – September 18, 1975) was an American painter and art critic.[1] He was the fourth of five children of James Porter, an architect, and Ruth Furness Porter, a poet from a literary family.[2] He was the brother of photographer Eliot Porter and the brother-in-law of federal Reclamation Commissioner Michael W. Straus.
While a student at Harvard, Porter majored in fine arts; he continued his studies at the Art Students' League when he moved to New York City in 1928. His studies at the Art Students' League predisposed him to produce socially relevant art and, although the subjects would change, he continued to produce realist work for the rest of his career. He would be criticized and revered for continuing his representational style in the midst of the Abstract Expressionist movement.[3]
His subjects were primarily landscapes, domestic interiors and portraits of family, friends and fellow artists, many of them affiliated with the New York School of writers, including John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and James Schuyler. Many of his paintings were set in or around the family summer house on Great Spruce Head Island, Maine and the family home at 49 South Main Street, Southampton, New York.
His painterly vision, which encompassed a fascination with nature and the ability to reveal extraordinariness in ordinary life, was heavily indebted to the French painters Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard. John Ashbery wrote of him: "Characteristically, [Porter] tended to prefer the late woolly Vuillards to the early ones everyone likes".[4]
Porter said once, "When I paint, I think that what would satisfy me is to express what Bonnard said Renoir told him: 'make everything more beautiful.'"[5]
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Work in public collections
Porter bequeathed about 250 of his works to the Parrish Art Museum.[6][7][8]
- Laurence at the Piano (1953), New Britain Museum of American Art.
- Katie and Anne (1955), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- Still Life with Casserole (1955), Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Elaine de Kooning (1957), Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Frank O' Hara (1957), Toledo Museum of Art
- Maine Coast (1958), Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Chrysanthemums (1958), Wadsworth Atheneum
- Schwenk, (1959), Museum of Modern Art
- Children in a Field (1960), Whitney Museum of American Art
- Boathouses (1961), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- The Garden Road (1962), Whitney Museum of American Art
- Jerry at the Piano (1962), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- Jimmy and Liz (1963), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
- The Screen Porch (1964), Whitney Museum of American Art
- Flowers by the Sea (1965), Museum of Modern Art
- Interior in Sunlight (1965), Brooklyn Museum
- The Mirror (1966), Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
- Anne in a Striped Dress (1967), Parrish Art Museum
- Under the Elms (1971), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
- Sunrise on South Main Street (1973), Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Dock (1974–75), Farnsworth Art Museum
- Near Union Square--Looking up Park Avenue (1975), Metropolitan Museum of Art
- October Interior (1963), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
- Apple Blossoms I (1974), The Christmas Tree (1971), Street Scene (1969), Muscarelle Museum of Art[9]
"John MacWhinnie" (1968) (Parrish Art Museum) "Inez MacWhinnie" (1974)Mother of John MacWhinnie,artist (Parrish Art Museum)
References
- ^ Porter, Fairfield. "Art in its own terms Selected Criticism 1935-1975." Cambridge, Massachusetts: Zoland Books, 1979. ISBN 0-944072-31-3
- ^ "A Finding Aid to the Fairfield Porter Papers, 1888–2001 (bulk 1924–1975), in the Archives of American Art". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ Spring, Justin. "Fairfield Porter a Life in Art." New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-300-07637-1
- ^ *Ashbery, John, and David Bergman. Reported sightings: art chronicles, 1957–1987. New York: Knopf, 1989. ISBN 0-394-57387-0. p. 316
- ^ Spike, John T. Fairfield Porter an American classic. New York: Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-3719-0. p. 218
- ^ "Fairfield Porter: Modern American Master". Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
- ^ "The Fairfield Porter Collection and Archives". Archived from the original on 2018-11-30. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
- ^ Spike, John T. Fairfield Porter: An American Classic, p. 282-307.New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1992
- ^ "Apple Blossoms I, (Color lithograph, state I/III, 42/50), The Christmas Tree (Color Lithograph on Arches paper, 40/100), Street Scene (Color lithograph, state IV/IV, 78/100)". Curators at Work III. Muscarelle Museum of Art. 2013.
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External links
- Fairfield Porter Papers Online at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
- Ken Moffatt, The Art of Fairfield Porter: An American Painter Celebrated a Sense of Place, 17 Feb 2010, Artes Magazine
- Alex Carnevale, In Which Fairfield Porter Looked So Young For His Age, January 13, 2011
- David Herd, Waiting for the mailboat (Letters of James Schuyler), The Guardian, 28 May 2005
- Audio recording of Fairfield Porter, October 29, 1963, from Maryland Institute College of Art's Decker Library, Internet Archive
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This page was last edited on 7 April 2024, at 12:03