Fairfield Porter: An American Classic

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A figurative realist in the heyday of abstract expressionism, Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) shunned isms and continually broadened his approach, painting himself, his family and friends in New York City, in Southhampton, Long Island, and on an island off the Maine coast. An informative authorized biography and a critique of Porter's work, this lavishly illustrated monograph makes a case for Porter as a major American artist comparable to Pierre Bonnard in his subjective receptivity to people and events, a painter who caught the essence of each moment and never repeated himself. Spike, a specialist in Italian art, gives full consideration to Porter's gritty cityscapes of the 1930s, when he dabbled in radical political causes. From his friend Willem de Kooning, Porter learned to paint quickly and fearlessly, and from Bonnard and Vuillard, he was guided on his artistic course. Porter's airy, light-filled landscapes, interiors, portraits and crystalline ocean views are reproduced here in 280 plates, most of them in color. (Nov.)

Donna Seaman

This luxurious volume presents the first comprehensive biography and survey of the life and art of Fairfield Porter. Although he was part of the inner circle of the leading East Coast painters and poets during the abstract and pop eras of the 1950s and 1960s, Porter maintained his fascination with and devotion to figurative painting, never achieving the recognition granted peers such as Willem de Kooning or Larry Rivers. While Spike's dignified and useful biography draws on Porter's unusually articulate and detailed correspondence, the 200-plus color reproductions trace the evolution of Porter's ever-painterly and homey style. Porter painted family members and friends, interiors and landscapes, never distancing himself from these familiar subjects but penetrating deeper and deeper into their quiet beauty, discerning, finally, that each moment, each vision, is unique. The stillness of his figures is emphasized by the organic and radiant energy of their settings. Porter worked through the jitteriness that shaped his early paintings to attain the mastery of his 1950s compositions. Here, light is unruly and irrepressible, blurring edges and spangling surfaces. By the 1960s, Porter's paintings grew in depth and richness, reflecting a hard-won trust in line and solidity. These are works of an enduring, private, and pure intelligence, shown to advantage in this well-designed retrospective.