It is art time again folks and I am still running from the list I made after the visit to Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY. Today's artist is an American painter named Fairfield Porter who was born outside of Chicago, IL in 1907.
Fairfield Porter was a painter, critic, theorist, and a scholar. He attended Harvard University from 1924-1928 studying philosophy and art history. He also studied writing and poetry and found a beginning love for politics. From 1928 to `930 he studied painting under American painter Thomas Hart Benton as well as being a part of the Art Students League of New York. After this he traveled Europe and Russia extensively to educate himself on the work of masters. His love of politics increased on this trip. (For extensive personal bio see the above link).
Porter was a painter who enjoyed realism and representational painting despite being overshadowed by Abstract Expressionism of the time. He was a non-conformist when it came to art and writing with his style being more closely related to 19th century European Bohemianism than the 20th century New York School. In addition to this juxtaposition, Fairfield Porter often enjoyed art from individual painters from schools which he did not favor such as William de Kooning.
He believed that all art had feelings that can't be divorced from their ideas which made him skeptical of art styles like Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Neo-Dada. Porter believed they were distracted with aesthetic form rather than being interested in using their skills to depict the real nature of things.
Fairfield Porter painted up through his last years of his life which were mostly landscapes. He remained an avid writer as well.
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