{"data":{"id":"1045","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":1045,"topgoose_id":1121,"tms_id":1045,"display_name":"Fairfield Porter","sort_name":"Porter Fairfield","display_date":"1907–1975","begin_date":"1907","end_date":"1975","biography":"\u003cp\u003eDespite the rise of Abstract Expressionism and Pop art in the decades following World War II, Fairfield Porter remained faithful to a figurative style of painting. This individualistic path accorded with his interest in portraying intimate domestic interiors and exploring light effects—concerns that linked his work to the American Realist tradition of painters such as Thomas Eakins and \u003ca href=\"/artists/621\"\u003eEdward Hopper\u003c/a\u003e. By the early 1960s Porter had expanded the scale of his canvases and increasingly utilized broad areas of color to compose his paintings. In this life-sized composition, the artist portrays four figures on the back porch of his house in Great Spruce Head, Maine, which he used as his studio during the summertime. Inside are two of his children, Kate and Lizzie, and the poet James Schuyler, who lived with the family for twelve years; the artist’s wife, Anne, stands outside. The figures do not interact or display emotion, instilling this everyday scene with tension and mystery.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePorter emphasized that he was interested not in narrative elements but, rather, in capturing underlying formal relationships: “When I paint I try not to see the subject as what it is; I try to see only very concrete shapes which have no association except as themselves.” This concern is apparent in his attention to the geometric armature of the windows, the rhythm of the four figures across the canvas, and the flattened areas of light. Like all of Porter’s canvases, \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/2247\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Screen\nPorch\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e suggests that the distinction between realism and abstraction is not always clear cut.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500032358","wikidata_id":"Q5430337","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:05:35.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-11T07:00:38.468-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/1045/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/1045/exhibitions"}}}}