Selections
from
The Fairfield Porter Papers
An Exhibition at
the New York Office
of the Archives of American Art, March 16-- Oct. 6, 2000
CHECKLIST OF THE EXHIBITION
Unless otherwise noted, all material is from the Fairfield Porter Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright Information
1. Fairfield Porter, a Life in Art by Justin Spring (Yale University Press, 2000). Courtesy of the author.
3. Cyanotype of Fairfield Porter, 1911. 8.1 x 11.1 cm.
4. Photograph of Fairfield Porter's mother Ruth Wadsworth Furness, ca., 1895. Ruth Wadsworth Furness married James Foster Porter in 1898. 7.8. x 11 cm. In an interview with Paul Cummings, Porter recalled, "I remember being taken to the Art Institute [of Chicago] by my mother....I remember I always liked to see paintings, and the paintings that I can remember in the Art Institute are Giovanni de Paolo. I think it was because it had the beheading of St. John the Baptist in it, which was sort of fantastically gory."
5. Photograph of Fairfield Porter's father James Foster Porter, ca.1895. 13 x 19 cm. Porter described his father to Paul Cummings: "My father was an architect. He built the house in which we lived. I still think it is one of the most beautiful Greek revival houses in the United States." James Porter began a career as a biologist and maintained a life long interest in natural science.
6. Photograph of Fairfield Porter drawing, ca.1913, about age six. Photograph by E. Newman. 13.6 x 18.5 cm. In a 1968 interview, Porter remembered his childhood drawings, "I copied Howard Pyle and I copied photographs. I remember once in art class in grammar school, everyone was supposed to bring a flower to school and paint it, and I didn't bring anything. So they gave me a piece of timothy grass. I had a brush that was crooked, it was bent. And the teacher liked my rendering of timothy grass better than anybody else's thing. She held it up before the class and said, 'Look what he did, and with that terrible brush.'
7. Letter from Fairfield Porter to his mother, March 26 [1925], describing his studies at Harvard University. 3 pages; 20.5. x 27 cm. "Fine Arts is getting more and more interesting," he wrote, "...Professor [Arthur Upham] Pope was talking to us about modern schools painting. He says it is wrong to think they are mysterious or un-understandable, because usually they are much easier to understand than older schools. Usually queer modern paintings are merely patterns. He said that artists have recently had the idea of making 'pure' art as music is 'pure,' that is, it doesn't imitate or resemble any sound in nature, but of course it is harmonious. He criticized Expressionistic art as not expressing anything, the expressionism is always accidental. Then he showed us Japanese prints and Chinese paintings that are truly expressionistic." Porter graduated from Harvard in 1928.
8. Photograph of Porter with his brothers and sister on the dock at Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, ca. 1940. 13.5 x 13.5 cm. James Porter's "Searsport" farmhouse is in the background. From left, Eliot, Fairfield, Nancy, Edward, and John. Great Spruce Head Island, between the Maine coast and Deer Isle in Penobscot Bay, is roughly a mile long and a half mile wide. James Porter purchased the island in 1912. The Porters spent their first summer there in 1913.
9. Portrait photograph of poet Anne Elizabeth Channing, 1927. 8.5 x 24 cm. She met Fairfield Porter in the spring of 1931. They married the following year. Photograph by Frizell.
11. Photograph of Fairfield Porter in Maine, ca.1946. 9 x 14.8 cm.
12. Photograph of Anne Porter with her firstborn son John, ca.1936. 8.8 x 14.5 cm. The Porters had five children: John, Laurence, Jerry (later Richard), Katharine, and Elizabeth.
13. Letter from Anne Porter in Sherborn, Massachusetts, to Fairfield in New York, 1935. 5 pages; 14.3 x 17.3 cm. She mentions Porter's portrait of Henry Eliot, his cousin and the brother of poet T. S. Eliot.
14. Letter from Fairfield Porter in Venice, Italy, to Anne Channing (then studying at Radcliffe), in which he mimics her distinctive handwriting and punctuation, postmarked 1931. 5 pages; 1 leaf, 28.5 x 17.3 cm. folded to 14.3 x 17.3 cm. Describing Venice, Fairfield Porter remarked, "It is like a combination amusement park and highbrow museum."
15. Letter from Porter to his mother, February 15 [1932]. 3 pages; 22 x 28.6 cm. Porter observed, "I am beginning to understand Piero della Francesca. Albert once said of some Negro music he & I heard at a vaudeville in Harlem that it was 'the bare bones of music' & Piero della Francesco is like that. He is probably close to Negro sculpture and that is why he is popular with modern painters in both space and solidity are stated in as few and simple terms as possible."
16. Letter from poet James Schuyler to Fairfield Porter, undated. 2 pages; 21.4 x 27.5 cm. Schuyler comments on Porter's dual role as a critic and painter and mentions their friend, painter Jane Freilicher. Schuyler and Porter met at the home of Rudy Burckhardt. Schuyler would later win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He was the Porters' permanent houseguest in the 1960s.
17. Letter, August 22 [1960], from Thomas Hess, editor of Art News, to Porter with suggestions for his essay "John Graham: The Painter as Aristocrat," that appeared in Art News October 1960. 2 pages; 21.5 x 28 cm. Elaine de Kooning recommended Porter to Thomas Hess. In an interview with Paul Cummings, Porter recalled, "I sort of jumped at the chance because I had always thought that I would be good at this, better than anybody. I had always thought that, and they liked me right away at Art News....I stayed for seven years. I could have kept on forever, partly because I was painting, which would give me new ideas." From 1959 to 1961, Porter also wrote reviews for The Nation.
19. Notebook used by Fairfield Porter in the mid-1950s while he made his rounds as an art reviewer. 24. 7 x 18. 5 cm. The book includes notes on paintings and installations, names, addresses and telephone numbers, as well as rough drafts of reviews. Porter described his interviewing technique to Paul Cummings: " I went around to artists' studios and looked at their work, because I was assigned to review something or other. The reason I was good was that I would try as much as possible, when looking at something that I had to review, to cease to exist myself and simply identify with this so that I could say something about it. But that wasn't simply my own idea....[Alfred] Frankfurter said that the best criticism is simply the best description and I think that's true."
20. Letter from painter Philip Evergood to Porter, November 18, 1952. 2 p.s; 21.5 x 28 cm. Nine months earlier, Evergood had suggested that Porter show at the A.C.A. Gallery in New York. Instead Porter began a long association with the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. In this letter Evergood congratulates him on his first show there, which opened October 7, 1952.
21. Letter from painter Edward Laning to Porter, October 27, 1952, commenting on his first exhibition at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. 1 p.; 18.3 x 26.3 cm. In an interview with Paul Cummings, Porter recalled, "After I had been writing for Art News for a few months, I wrote an interesting review of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery's first shows. When I saw their shows, I thought this is the liveliest gallery in New York. This is the place I would like to be in, and that was the place I did get into. I got just exactly what I wanted." Porter's friends Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers, and Jane Freilicher recommended Porter to Tibor de Nagy.
22. Typescript of an essay on Joseph Cornell by Porter, which appeared in Art and Literature No. 8 Spring 1966. 6 p.s. 28 x 21. 5 cm. In a 1968 interview Porter recalled, "I wrote about [Joseph] Cornell, which took me a year to get started on. I found that very, very difficult. I didn't know what I was going to say."
23. A letter of appreciation from Joseph Cornell to Porter, undated. 1 p.; 20 x 24.3 cm.
24. Typescript of a review of an Édouard Vuillard exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, June 6 [1954]. 2 p.s; 21.5 x 27.8 cm. "What I like in Vuillard," Porter later told Paul Cummings, "is that it seems to be ordinary what he's doing, but the extraordinary is everywhere."
25. Fairfield Porter, Thomas Eakins (New York: Braziller, 1959). In an interview with Paul Cummings Porter spoke about his book on Eakins: "The Braziller Company was putting out a series of books about American painters, and Tom [Hess] was writing about de Kooning ...Goodrich had already written about Eakins, so he decided he wanted to write about Homer and Ryder. I would have liked de Kooning most of all, and I would have liked Homer next, I guess, not Ryder. But Eakins was what there was. I was told that it would be so much money: $750. So I thought I need the money so I'll do it. I remember I didn't like Eakins very much. I think I like him better now."
26. Two snapshots: Porter in the dining room of his home at 49 South Main Street, Southampton, New York, and one of Alex Katz's painting in the upstairs hallway, ca.1962. 9 x 9 cm. Porter admired Katz's paintings. In an interview he explained that Katz's paintings remind him "of the first experience in nature, the first experience of seeing."
27. Undated letter from Jane Freilicher to Porter. 2 p.; 21.5 x 27.8 cm. Porter was introduced to Freilicher through a studio visit, just before her May 1952 show at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery.
31. Richard Stankiewicz's journal of his trip to Porter's summer home on Great Spruce Head Island, August 1 - August 3, 1955. 10 p.; 22.5 x 28 cm. Richard Stankiewicz Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Stankiewicz was the odd-man-out. He wrote, "F. read aloud Keats' Hyperion...I didn't even get the thread of the story and had to take the book up to bed with me, together with Bullfinch to puzzle it out. Keats, I must admit, is very good, but it doesn't follow that I like him...it is hard work...Jim [Schuyler] & FP seem not to consult me or take my opinions after these readings but are not offensive about it - I suppose there just isn't much point in trying to milk a bull."
33. 1952 letter from Leon Hartl to Porter, scheduling a studio visit. 1 page; 20 x 20.5 cm. Porter's profile of Hartl, "Hartl Paints a Picture," was published in Art News in April 1953.
34. Letter from James Schulyer to Porter commenting on Porter's poem about Leon Hartl, undated. 2 p.; 21.5 x 28 cm.
35. Fairfield Porter's "Two Poems to Leon Hartl," published in The Bonacker (East Hampton: The Bonacker Press, 1953), a collection of Eastern Long Island writing.
36. Letter from Porter to Frank O'Hara, 1955, commenting on O'Hara's essay "Porter Paints a Picture," that appeared in Art News in January 1955. Porter also includes a poem from his daughter Katie (Katharine), then six. 1 page; 21.5 x 28 cm.
37. Typescript of a poem by Fairfield Porter and Kenneth Koch referring to their friends James Schuyler and Frank O'Hara. 1 page; 21.5 x 28 cm.
39. Photograph of Porter sketching, ca.1970. 8.8 x 8.8 cm.
40. Three Fairfield Porter sketchbooks, ca. 1943 -1944. In a 1968 interview, Porter commented, "I draw but they're to be for my own use for painting. Maybe that's why I developed this drawing around a color, because it's something I use. That's what I want to know when I look at a drawing. I want to use it for something that's going to be colored, so I give myself that information."(Open to street scenes)
42. Letter from Lindsay and David Shapiro, August 1972, who had been introduced to the Porters through Kenneth Koch and visited the Porters on Great Spruce Head Island. 1 page; 21.7 x 28 cm.
43. Typescript, "Fairfield Porter: A Memoir" by David Shapiro, poet, musician, and scholar, later published in Art and Antiques. 18 p.; 21.5 x 28 cm.
45. Letter from painter Rackstraw Downes to Porter, November 10, 1973. 2 p.; 21.7 x 28 cm.
46. Typescript, "Fairfield Porter, the Man and the Ideas," by Rackstraw Downes, who later compiled Porter's critical essays in Art in Its Own Terms: Selected Criticism, 1935-1975 (Taplinger, 1979). 27 p.; 21.5 x 28 cm.
47. Photograph of Fairfield, Leon and Anne Porter, ca. 1972. Photograph by James Schuyler. 16.5. x 11.5 cm. The verso is inscribed: "Anne holding her first grandchild, Leon. Fairfield is singing Scottish war songs to him, just as he did to Leon's father, Laurence.
49. Typescript, "Remembering Fairfield Porter," by poet Ron Padgett. 3 p.; 21.5 x 28 cm.
50. Letter from Guy Davenport to John Bernard Myers, October 2, 1975. 2 p.; 21.5 x 28 cm. John Bernard Myers Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Davenport wrote to Myers who had been director of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, "Sorry to hear of the death of Fairfield Porter - end of era in American painting, yes? The last of his generation, I mean. Persephone and Lord Dis hail your friends with an awful regularity. I know a little something of his painting and his book on Eakins."
51. Letter from Ted Leigh, a former student of Porter's at Amherst, who is now editing the letters of Fairfield Porter for publication, June 10, 1972. 2 p.; 21.5 x 28 cm.
52. Letter from Mary Hays Weik, Committee To End Radiological Hazards, to Porter, February 12, 1974. 1 page; 21.5 x 28 cm. Throughout the 1970s, Porter was increasingly preoccupied with environmental issues and wrote letters in support of various causes.
53. Fairfield Porter, Vermont, 1933. Oil on paper; 37. 5 x 25 cm. Possibly painted during their honeymoon travels.
54. Fairfield Porter, New York City Kitchen, ca. 1932. Pencil on paper; 34 x 42 cm.
55. Fairfield Porter, Portrait of John Porter (Fairfield's brother), ca. 1930. Pencil on paper; 22 x 30 cm.
56. Fairfield Porter, Laurence, 1939. Pencil on paper; 60 x 44 cm. In a 1968 interview Porter commented on still lifes: "Almost always in still lifes, I don't arrange them....Part of my idea or my feeling about form that's interesting is that it is discovered."
57. Fairfield Porter, Male Nude, ca.1929. Oil on paper; 37. 5 x 50 cm. Figure study from Porter's classes at the Art Students League where he studied with Boardman Robinson and Thomas Hart Benton, among others. Porter preferred Robinson. In an interview with Paul Cummings, he explained, "I liked Robinson best, because he was a teacher. He taught you, he didn't teach a system. He taught the person he was talking to....There were certain things that he said again and again, but there was always something new. Whereas Benton had a system which he could present to you, and he presented the same system to everybody. And then you did it or not."
60. Photograph of Porter with a painting of his yellow Chevrolet van, ca. 1962. 25.3 x 20.3 cm.
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