Fairfield Porter : A Life in Art

Fredric Koeppel

[Spring] has turned out a smoothly written, articulate and insightful biography that's a pleasure to read.
— Fanfare

Judith E. Stein

Sensitively written and engaging. . . . Spring's achievement is substantial. Anyone intrigued by what he calls Porter's 'provocatively private, privileged, and bourgeois subjects' will find this book enlightening. Those interested in American intellectual history will be similarly rewarded.
—Philadelphia Inquirer

Library Journal

The artistic reputation of American artist Fairfield Porter (1907-75) has never quite reached the mythic proportions of many of his contemporaries. Porter's intimate representational works, often portraits of his family and friends, however, hold their own as American contributions to the art of this century. Born to wealth, his life in art encompassed not only his painting but also work as a critic and a poet. Spring (The Essential Jackson Pollock) captures both Porter's tempestuous personal life-mingling the art and literary worlds of the century-and the essence of his art. For those who are just discovering it, this biography will provide an excellent overview of his life and work, this is recommended for all collections with an interest in American Art.-Martin R Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC

Cohen

Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art is an exhaustive and intimate biography of a complex man; by reason of its focus on such an individualist, it is also a valuable addition to the intellectual histories of New York School painting and poetry... Like Porter's own, this biography is a well-examined life.
—The New York Times Book Review

Daniel Kunitz

While the reticence of his work may have prohibited Porter from achieving art-world stardom, the appearance of this elegant biography, on high-quality paper with many reproductions, attests to the continuing attractions of Porter's work a quarter-century after his death.
—Bookforum

Howard

So detailed, indeed so strenuous is Justin Spring’s account of our finest American painter of domestic life and landscape since Whistler that Fairfield Porter, who died at 68 in 1975, is revealed to be eminently qualified for the sort of magisterial status denied him, or very gingerly granted him, by the art world of his time (and even of ours). Presented by his enthusiastic biographer as a seasoned artist of transparent, Chekhovian "openness," as well as an eloquent critic bristling with controversial judgments and a poet of humbly aspiring lyricism, Porter now seems to incarnate that tricky encomium: Ripeness is all.
—The New York Observer

Jed Perl

This book is a remarkable achievement.—New Republic