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拍品专文
A published art critic well-informed in philosophy, Fairfield Porter’s artworks are known for their unaffected, spontaneous quality. Inspired by both the intimate, representational paintings of French artists like Édouard Vuillard, as well as Willem de Kooning’s Abstract Expressionism, he developed his own signature style combining concrete local detail with overall abstraction. Porter particularly admired the fearless, unapologetic artistic spirit of his friend and mentor de Kooning and liked to recount the time an audience member at a Museum of Modern Art lecture asked, “Mr. de Kooning, how can we persuade the American public that they need art?” and de Kooning responded, “They don’t need art. What the artist should do is to assert himself.” (as quoted in J.T. Spike, Fairfield Porter: An American Classic, New York, 1992, p. 83)
In 1949, Fairfield Porter moved with his family to Southampton on Long Island, New York, where he produced a major body of work. The present work depicts the garden at Porter’s Southampton home. According to the artist's wife Anne E. Porter, A Short Walk is “one of the very few paintings Fairfield ever did from a photo.” (as quoted in J. Ludman, Fairfield Porter: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Watercolors and Pastels, New York, 2001, p. 199) Although based on a photograph taken by his daughter at their family home, “A Short Walk is a painting that superficially corresponds to the camera-recorded schema yet has an enigmatic and poetic quality at odds with the optical witness.” (V.D. Coke, The Painter and the Photograph: From Delacroix to Warhol, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1972, p. 219)
Painted in 1963, the striking scale and sweeping brushwork in A Short Walk further reflect Porter’s shift toward larger canvases and increasingly abstracted form throughout the 1960s. “These tendencies reflected, in part, a general shift after 1957 toward greater clarity and stability by both Abstract Expressionists and younger artists of the post-painterly generation.” (W.C. Agee, Fairfield Porter: An American Painter, exhibition catalogue, Southampton, New York, 1993, p. 17) In these large works, such as A Short Walk, “The life of the paintings is in the proliferation of shapes and patterns, of areas of paint and color whose sheer inventiveness and sense of ceaseless, organic growth could be rivaled only by the abstractions of Clyfford Still.” (Fairfield Porter, p. 17) Creating a sense of light and shadow with broad swaths of color, Porter elegantly simplifies his subjects while still maintaining recognizable forms.
As William C. Agee explains, Porter’s “paintings convey a strong sense of place and presence, but for him the literal transcription of what he saw before him was beside the point. The actual subject was of little concern; rather it was in the paint itself that he found the life, the vitality, and the wholeness of the painting. He understood that the difference between realism and abstraction is not as simple as it seems. " (Fairfield Porter: An American Painter, Southampton, New York, 1993, p. 11) Indeed, A Short Walk, with is gestural brushwork and drips of paint, creates the sensation of a tranquil, sunny day, rather than a hyper-realistic representation. A painter of feeling rather than direct observation, Porter is at his best in A Short Walk, combining the tenderness of a family photograph with his characteristically spontaneous style.
In 1949, Fairfield Porter moved with his family to Southampton on Long Island, New York, where he produced a major body of work. The present work depicts the garden at Porter’s Southampton home. According to the artist's wife Anne E. Porter, A Short Walk is “one of the very few paintings Fairfield ever did from a photo.” (as quoted in J. Ludman, Fairfield Porter: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Watercolors and Pastels, New York, 2001, p. 199) Although based on a photograph taken by his daughter at their family home, “A Short Walk is a painting that superficially corresponds to the camera-recorded schema yet has an enigmatic and poetic quality at odds with the optical witness.” (V.D. Coke, The Painter and the Photograph: From Delacroix to Warhol, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1972, p. 219)
Painted in 1963, the striking scale and sweeping brushwork in A Short Walk further reflect Porter’s shift toward larger canvases and increasingly abstracted form throughout the 1960s. “These tendencies reflected, in part, a general shift after 1957 toward greater clarity and stability by both Abstract Expressionists and younger artists of the post-painterly generation.” (W.C. Agee, Fairfield Porter: An American Painter, exhibition catalogue, Southampton, New York, 1993, p. 17) In these large works, such as A Short Walk, “The life of the paintings is in the proliferation of shapes and patterns, of areas of paint and color whose sheer inventiveness and sense of ceaseless, organic growth could be rivaled only by the abstractions of Clyfford Still.” (Fairfield Porter, p. 17) Creating a sense of light and shadow with broad swaths of color, Porter elegantly simplifies his subjects while still maintaining recognizable forms.
As William C. Agee explains, Porter’s “paintings convey a strong sense of place and presence, but for him the literal transcription of what he saw before him was beside the point. The actual subject was of little concern; rather it was in the paint itself that he found the life, the vitality, and the wholeness of the painting. He understood that the difference between realism and abstraction is not as simple as it seems. " (Fairfield Porter: An American Painter, Southampton, New York, 1993, p. 11) Indeed, A Short Walk, with is gestural brushwork and drips of paint, creates the sensation of a tranquil, sunny day, rather than a hyper-realistic representation. A painter of feeling rather than direct observation, Porter is at his best in A Short Walk, combining the tenderness of a family photograph with his characteristically spontaneous style.