Fairfield Porter

by John Wilmerding, Karen Wilkin, J.D. McClatchy (Contributor)

The first comprehensive survey of the beloved figurative realist painter Fairfield Porter to be published in more than two decades. A figurative realist in the heyday of abstract expressionism, Fairfield Porter (1907–1975) painted himself, his family, and friends in New York City, in Southampton, Long Island, and on an island off the Maine coast, all depicting a relaxed and comfortable world that seemed to mirror his own affluent, well-connected existence. With virtually all of the artist’s previous publications now out of print, this much-anticipated volume is an important addition to the literature on this great American master. Porter graduated from Harvard in 1928 and then studied at the Art Students League in New York with Thomas Hart Benton. Along with months in Maine, Porter lived in New York and from 1948 on, in Southampton where he purchased a large, late Federal-style house for his own expanding family. Porter painted several artist friends, including Elaine de Kooning, Larry Rivers, and Jane Freilicher. He was also close to the modern poets John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler. With a carefully curated selection of the artist’s best works, John Wilmerding, a specialist in American art, gives full consideration to Porter’s expressive compositions and a color palette influenced by his coastal surroundings. Karen Wilkin discusses Porter’s influences and pictorial creativity. Distinguished poet J. D. McClatchy writes a reflection on one of Porter’s paintings.

Genres: Art

240 pages, Hardcover

Published October 11, 2016

Reviews

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets five stars for its winning essay by Karen Wilkin and for book quality by Rizzoli. Fairfield Porter was a figurative painter with an abstract bent. My hero among a field of Abstract Expressionists in the 1960s-1970s. He died in 1975. He was well known for his art criticism in ARTNews and The Nation. But for me, he shines most brightly with his attention to light, hue, tone, and composition. His landscapes and figures impart emotion. He is warm and almost upbeat --even though his life had sorrows. He painted all year in New York or Great Spruce Head Island, ME. He had famous artists for friends, but he was not in the museum's eye. He had one gallery (still), Tibor de Nagy. As Wilkin says, "he is our homegrown, East Coast Vermeer." A couple favorite quotes from Porter: "Part of my idea or my feeling about form that's interesting, is that it is discovered. If you don't think about it, you get form." "Reality is stronger than thought, feeling, the means of achievement, the artist's ego or his subjectivity."

[sosser · Rating 5 out of 5]

satisfying and delicious.

[Julia Robinson]

Splendid. Fascination to see the influences on his life from family to other artists. Lots of full color illustrations - a real plus.