Fairfield Porter was an American artist who produced representational paintings during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. Porter viewed his practice as a marriage between the
intimiste depictions of everyday life by
Pierre Bonnard and
Édouard Vuillard, with the lush paint handling of his friend
Willem de Kooning. The artist’s ability to simplify light into shapes of color, is highlighted in his painting
Island Farmhouse (1969). “Subject matter must be normal in the sense that it does not appear sought after, so much as simply happening to one,” he once remarked. Born on June 10, 1907 in Winnetka, IL, Porter studied fine art at Harvard University before continuing his education at the Art Students League in New York. During his early years in the city, Porter befriended influential poets such as Frank O’Hara, James Schuyler, and
John Ashbery, as well as the painters
Jane Freilicher and
Alex Katz. Porter was a critic as well as an artist, and regularly contributed reviews to art magazines as well essays to
The Nation. He died on September 17, 1975 in Southampton, NY. Today, the artist's works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, among others.