From Publishers Weekly
Best known for sublime pictures with subdued titles such as A Short Walk, Dog on the Steps and Island Farmhouse, East Coast brahmin Porter (1907-1975) has come to be acknowledged as one of the great 20th-century American painters. In his Maine and Long Island landscapes, as well as in his work that includes (however slowed down) human activity, Porter reports accurately on beauty and clutter, tangled branches and syncopated waves, but also sitters at angles to tables and cars askew in parking lot lines. He is unafraid of extreme contrasts, top-heavy and busy compositions, eccentric viewpoints and lighting, miscellaneous blotches and antidramatic subjects, yet his paintings are inevitably recognizable, subtle and affectionate. His gift, like that of the New York School poets with whom he is associated, is to make his subjects just clear enough to keep the pictures from becoming sums of distractions. This book complements Ludman's catalogue raisonn‚ of the prints and follows a year after a substantial biography from Yale University Press. Just over 1,300 works are documented here, prefaced by acute essays by painter Rackstraw Downes and William Agee; there are images and notes from critical reviews for most of the listed titles. Again and again, the notes to the pictures remark that Porter's work was both figural and abstract. This aesthetic dual citizenship is handled in every manner from obtuse to fully registered, a range encapsulated in Charles LeClair's analysis of Jimmy and Leaf Cart, a picture of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Schuyler engaged in lawn work: "Porter paints each object as a flat plane that erases detail.... The figure of Jimmy is reduced to flat colors designed not to make him stand out... but to blend into the scene." Or as Porter, a critic himself, put it, "Love is paying attention." For any lover of painting, this catalogue will be more than an overdue arrival, it will be a roadmap for pilgrimages. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The figurative, highly colored works of Fairfield Porter (1907-75) are often overshadowed by those of his more flamboyant contemporaries in the Abstract Expressionist New York School or the striking output of artists such as Stuart Davis or Edward Hopper. His meticulous landscapes, still lifes, and portraits are, however, an important contribution to American art. Covering Porter's adult output (1924-75), this catalogue raisonn? chronicles over 1300 works. Each work is fully documented, including provenance, exhibition history, and references. Though a vast majority of the works are illustrated with black-and-white images, a significant number are represented with color plates. Compiled by art historian Ludman (who also compiled Fairfield Porter: A Catalogue Raisonn? of His Prints), this volume also includes essays by art historians Rackstraw Dawes, William C. Agee, and John T. Spikes. For a complete biographical treatment of Porter, see Justin Spring's Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art (LJ 1/00). Recommended for larger collections of 20th-century art. Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
This monumental project documents every known painting by Porter.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) is one of the great American artists of the postwar period. His work is widely loved for its lyricism and apparently realist subject matter: still lifes, studio and other interiors, landscapes in Southampton, N.Y., and Great Spruce Head Island in Penobscot Bay, Maine, and portraits - including his many friends among the leading poets and artists of the New York School. Yet he was as concerned with color, light, paint handling, and composition as the Abstract Expressionists. The "natural" look of his paintings was achieved after a lifetime spent at his craft. In line with a long American tradition, Porter's art insists on the concrete and the specific rather than on the European heritage of the ideal and the general." "This project documents every known painting by Porter, more than 1,300 in all, dating from 1924 to 1975. Three essays by leading authorities place the work in the context of Porter's biography and ideology: "The Thought behind the Painting" by Rackstraw Downes; "An American Painter 'Dense with Experience'" by William C. Agee; and "A Life in Art" by John T. Spike. This definitive reference also includes a Chronology, Selected Bibliography, list of Museum and Corporate Collections, and Index."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal