Art Trivia: Who is this artist?
This artist was born in a New England seaport city in the third decade of the 20th century. Their family moved to a tropical island when they were 10 years old. Returning to New England, this artist attended a prominent college and concentrated their studies in both two and three-dimensional media, studying under accomplished teachers. They also attended a well-known summer school of visual arts located in Maine.
The artist continued their undergraduate studies, at a college in New Haven, Connecticut, for three years where one of their instructors was a prominent painter with ties to Maine. Fellow students in their class would also go on to be cited for their pioneering work in the visual arts. Upon graduation, the artist moved to a bohemian neighborhood of New York City where they became friends with the sculptor Louis Nevelson.
The artist is known for their large Realist still lifes. Their trademark is the painting treatment of everyday objects—especially clear glassware filled with water—concentrating on the shapes of the objects and the play of light off of their surfaces.
They maintain studios in New York and Vermont and have taught at the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons The New School for Design (both in New York City), Syracuse University (Syracuse, New York), and the University of Chicago.
Answer: Janet Fish
Janet Isobel Fish was born on May 18, 1938, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Bermuda, where her family moved when she was ten years old. She knew from a young age that she wanted to pursue the visual arts. She attended Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, concentrating on sculpture and printmaking. She studied under George Cohn, Leonard Baskin, and Mervin Jules and received her BA in 1960. This was followed by a summer residency at The Skowhegan School of Art in 1961.
She enrolled at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture, attending from 1960 to 1963 where her instructor for an introductory painting class was Alex Katz. Her fellow Yale students included Chuck Close, Richard Serra, Brice Marden, Nancy Graves, Sylvia and Robert Mangold, and Rackstraw Downes. She was awarded her BFA and in 1963 became one of the first women to earn a Master of Fine Arts from Yale’s School of Art and Architecture. After graduating, Fish took up residence in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, where she and Louise Nevelson became friends.
Fish is known for her large, bold, Realist still lifes, especially the way she paints everyday items such as clear glassware partially filled with water, concentrating on the shapes of the objects and the play of light off of their surfaces.
She has been an art instructor at the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons The New School for Design (both in New York City), Syracuse University (Syracuse, New York), and the University of Chicago. She resides, and paints, in her SoHo, New York City loft, and her Vermont farmhouse in Middletown Springs. (wikipedia)
Featured in “Maine and American Art: Farnsworth Art Museum” with thanks to the Henry Luce Foundation and Wyeth Foundation for American Art.
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