Janet Fish (born May 18, 1938) is a contemporary American
realist artist. Through oil painting, lithography, and screenprinting, she explores the interaction of light with everyday objects in the
still life
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
genre. Many of her paintings include elements of transparency (plastic wrap, water), reflected light,
and multiple overlapping patterns depicted in bold, high color values. She has been credited with revitalizing the
still life
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
genre.
Early life and education
Janet Isobel Fish
was born on in
Boston, Massachusetts,
and was raised in
Bermuda
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, where her family moved when she was ten years old.
From a young age, she was surrounded by many artistic influences. Her father was professor of art history Peter Stuyvesant Fish and her mother was sculptor and potter Florence Whistler Voorhees.
Her sister, Alida, is a photographer.
Her grandfather, whose studio was in Bermuda, was
American Impressionist
American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose b ...
painter
Clark Voorhees
Clark Greenwood Voorhees (1871 – 1933) was an American Impressionist and Tonalist landscape painter and one of the founders of the Old Lyme Art Colony.
Biography
The son of a stockbroker, Voorhees was born on May 29, 1871, in New York City. ...
.
Her uncle, also named
Clark Voorhees
Clark Greenwood Voorhees (1871 – 1933) was an American Impressionist and Tonalist landscape painter and one of the founders of the Old Lyme Art Colony.
Biography
The son of a stockbroker, Voorhees was born on May 29, 1871, in New York City. ...
,
was a wood carver
and his wife, a painter.
Fish knew from a young age that she wanted to pursue the visual arts.
She said, "I came from a family of artists, and I always made art and knew I wanted to be an artist."
Fish was talented in ceramics and she initially intended to be a sculptor.
As a teenager, Fish was an assistant in the studio of sculptor
Byllee Lang.
Fish attended
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
, in
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571.
Northampton is known as an acade ...
, concentrating on sculpture and printmaking.
She studied under George Cohn,
Leonard Baskin
Leonard Baskin (August 15, 1922 – June 3, 2000) was an American sculptor, draughtsman and graphic artist, as well as founder of the Gehenna Press (1942–2000). One of America's first fine arts presses, it went on to become "one of the most imp ...
, and
Mervin Jules.
She spent one of her summers studying at the
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists.
Although artists may stu ...
and attended a painting class led by
Stephen Greene.
Fish received a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
from Smith in 1960.
This was followed by a summer residency at
The Skowhegan School of Art in
Skowhegan, Maine
Skowhegan () is the county seat of Somerset County, Maine. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 8,620. Every August, Skowhegan hosts the annual Skowhegan State Fair, the oldest continuously-held state fair in the United States. Skowh ...
in 1961.
Fish enrolled at the
Yale University School of Art and Architecture in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
, attending from 1960 to 1963.
There she changed her focus from sculpture to painting.
Her instructor for an introductory painting class was
Alex Katz
Alex Katz (born July 24, 1927) is an American figurative artist known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints.
Early life and career
Alex Katz was born July 24, 1927, to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, as the son of an émigré who ha ...
, who encouraged students to explore the shows in New York galleries which expanded Fish's knowledge of the art world.
During that period, art schools tended to favor the teaching of
Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
,
influencing Fish's burgeoning artistic style. She soon developed her own direction noting that "Abstract Expressionism didn't mean anything to me. It was a set of rules."
Her fellow Yale students included
Chuck Close
Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very l ...
,
Richard Serra
Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration o ...
,
Brice Marden
Brice Marden (born October 15, 1938) is an American artist generally described as Minimalist, although his work may be hard to categorize. He lives and works in New York City; Tivoli, New York; Hydra, Greece; and Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania.
Life ...
,
Nancy Graves
Nancy Graves (December 23, 1939 – October 21, 1995, in Massachusetts) was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and sometime-filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the Moon. Her works are included in man ...
,
Sylvia and
Robert Mangold
Robert Mangold (born October 12, 1937) is an American minimalist artist. He is also father of film director and screenwriter James Mangold.
Early life and education
Mangold was born in North Tonawanda, New York. His mother, Blanche, was a ...
, and
Rackstraw Downes
Rackstraw Downes (born 1939) is a British-born realist painter and author. His oil paintings are notable for their meticulous detail accumulated during months of plein-air sessions, depictions of industry and the environment, and elongated compos ...
. In 1963, Fish became one of the first women to earn a
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.)
is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...
from Yale's School of Art and Architecture.
Work
Fish largely rejected the Abstract Expressionism endorsed by her Yale instructors feeling "totally disconnected" from it and desiring instead the "physical presence of objects". Undaunted by the dogma of pure abstraction which reigned in her formative years, Janet Fish connected with images in the real world. Rooted in the Modernist formal tradition and the Dutch still life genre tradition, her work adheres to the world of concrete contemporary experience. Fish's simple, familiar subjects are rendered with formal complexity, richness of detail and the vibrant, tropical palette of her childhood.
Fish is interested in painting light and a concept she has on occasion called "packaging", such as jars, cellophane, and wrappers.
Among her other favorite subjects are everyday objects, especially various kinds of clear glassware, either empty or partially filled with liquids such as water, liquor, or vinegar. Examples range from glasses, bottles, goblets, and jars
to a fishbowl filled with water and a goldfish.
Other subjects include teacups,
flower bouquets, textiles with interesting patterns,
goldfish, vegetables,
and mirrored surfaces.
Although Fish's work has been characterized as
Photorealist
Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can ...
or
New Realism
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
,
she does not consider herself a photorealist. Elements, such as her composition and use of color, demonstrate the view of a painter rather than a photographer.
Life
After graduating from Yale, Fish spent a year in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
then moved to
SoHo
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
where she became friends with
Louise Nevelson
Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures.
Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...
.
Fish was an art instructor at the
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.
History
This school was started by ...
and
Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
(both in New York City),
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
(
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
), and the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
.
Fish had two short-lived marriages, which she claims were unsuccessful at least partly due to her high ambitions and her reluctance to be a "good conventional housewife".
She resides, and paints, in her
SoHo
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
loft and her
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
farmhouse
in
Middletown Springs.
Exhibitions
Fish's first solo show was at
Rutherford, New Jersey
Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough's population was 18,834.
Rutherford was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on September 21, 1881, fr ...
's
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 degree programs to its students. In addition to its tw ...
in 1967 and her first New York exhibition followed two years later.
Fish exhibited over 75 times nationally and internationally. Below is a selection of the exhibitions of her work.
*Modern Contemporary Art, Freeman's, Philadelphia, group exhibition
*Janet Fish, Pinwheels & Poppies Paintings 1980–2008, DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2017, solo exhibition
*Janet Fish, Glass Plastic, The Early Years 1968-1978, DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2016, solo exhibition
*The Annual 2015: The Depth of the Surface,
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...
, New York, 2015, group exhibition
*This American Life,
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum.
Founders
The core of the museum's perm ...
, Kansas City, MO, 2014, group exhibition
*Fall Fantasy - Small Scale Works, Marianne Friedland Gallery, Naples, FL, 2014, group exhibition
*Janet Fish, Panopoly, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, 2013, solo exhibition
*Compelling Images, Makeready Press Gallery, Montclair, NJ, 2013, group exhibition
*Janet Fish, Recent Paintings, Charles Birchfield Landscapes DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2012, group exhibition
*Janet Fish, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, 2006, solo exhibition
*The Art of Janet Fish, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME, 2004, solo exhibition
*Janet Fish, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM, 2004, solo exhibition
*Janet Fish, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL, 2003, solo exhibition
*Janet Fish, The Columbus Museum Columbus, GA, 2000, solo exhibition
*Janet Fish, Paintings and Drawings Since 1975, Marsh Gallery,
University of Richmond
The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students in five schools: the School ...
, 1987, solo exhibition
*76 Jefferson, 1976,
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, group exhibition
*New York Exhibition, 1969, solo exhibition
*
Rutherford, New Jersey
Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough's population was 18,834.
Rutherford was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on September 21, 1881, fr ...
's
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 degree programs to its students. In addition to its tw ...
, 1967, solo exhibition
Recognition
Art critic Gerrit Henry has described Fish as the acknowledged master of the contemporary still life.
A writer for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said that Fish's "ambitious still life painting helped resuscitate realism in the 1970s" and that she imbued everyday objects with a "bold optical and painterly energy".
Critic Vincent Katz concurs, stating that Fish's career "can be summed up as the revitalization of the still-life genre, no mean feat when one considers that still life has often been considered the lowest type of objective painting".
In an interview, American painter
Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl (born March 9, 1948) is an American painter, sculptor, printmaker, draughtsman and educator. He is known for his paintings depicting American suburbia from the 1970s and 1980s.
Life
Fischl was born in New York City and grew up on su ...
spoke of his admiration for Janet Fish: "She's one of the most interesting realists of her generation. Her work is a touchstone, and tremendously influential. Anyone who deals with domestic still life has to go through her, she's very important."
Fish has been honored with various awards and fellowships, including:
*
MacDowell Fellowship, 1968, 1969 and 1972
* Harris Award, Chicago Biennale, 1974
* Australia Council for Arts Grant, 1975
* Elected into the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...
, 1990
* Hubbard Museum Award, 1991
*
Aspen Art Museum
Founded in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Aspen, Colorado. AAM exhibitions include drawings, paintings, sculptures, multimedia installations and electronic media.
Aspen Art Museum Building ...
Woman in Arts Award, 1993
*
American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
Award, 1994
*
Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
Medal, 2012
Fish's work is included in the permanent collection of many institutions and museums.
Museum collections
Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art Saint Joseph, Missouri
St. Joseph is a city in and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Small parts of St. Joseph extend into Andrew County. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which inclu ...
*
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, NY
*
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
Bermuda National Gallery*
Canton Museum of Art
*
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
*
Columbia Museum of Art
The Columbia Museum of Art is an art museum in the American city of Columbia, South Carolina.
History
The Columbia Museum of Art was originally in the 1908 private residence of the city's Taylor family. Located on Senate Street in Columbia, ad ...
*
Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...
*
Dayton Art Institute
The Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is a museum of fine arts in Dayton, Ohio, United States. The Dayton Art Institute has been rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The museum also ranks in the top 3% of all art mus ...
*
Farnsworth Art Museum
The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, United States, is an art museum that specializes in American art. Its permanent collection includes works by such artists as Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Thomas Eakins, Eastman Johnson, Fitz Henry Lan ...
*
Harn Museum of Art
*
Huntsville Museum of Art
Huntsville Museum of Art (HMA) is a museum located in Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama. HMA sits in Big Spring Park within Downtown Huntsville, and serves as a magnet for cultural activities.
In 1957, the Huntsville Art League and Museum ...
*
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA) is a non-profit art museum and school in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States.
History
In 1924, members of the Kalamazoo Chapter of the American Federation of Arts established an art center "to further ...
* Maier Museum of Art at
Randolph College
Randolph College is a private liberal arts and sciences college in Lynchburg, Virginia. Founded in 1891 as Randolph-Macon Woman's College, it was renamed on July 1, 2007, when it became coeducational.
The college offers 32 majors; 42 minors; â ...
*
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
*
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (established 1876) in South Hadley, Massachusetts, is located on the Mount Holyoke College campus and is a member of Museums10. It is one of the oldest teaching museums in the country, dedicated to providing ...
*
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
*
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...
*
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
*
Museum of Victoria
Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage faci ...
*
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
*
Orlando Museum of Art
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
*
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...](_blank)
Museum of Art
*
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
*
Westmoreland Museum of American Art
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is an art museum in Greensburg, Pennsylvania devoted to American art, with a particular concentration on the art of southwestern Pennsylvania.
Art lover Mary Marchand Woods bequeathed her entire estate to e ...
*
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
*
Wichita Art Museum
The Wichita Art Museum is an art museum located in Wichita, Kansas, United States.
The museum was established in 1915, when Louise Caldwell Murdock’s Will which created a trust to start the Roland P. Murdock Collection of art in memory of her ...
*
Yale University Art Gallery
The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
External links
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History InterviewSome sites displaying images of Fish's work:
DC Moore Gallery*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fish, Janet
American women painters
Modern artists
1938 births
Living people
20th-century American painters
21st-century American painters
Artists from Boston
Smith College alumni
Art Students League of New York alumni
Yale School of Art alumni
Yale University alumni
School of Visual Arts faculty
Parsons School of Design faculty
Syracuse University faculty
University of Chicago faculty
MacDowell Colony fellows
Painters from Massachusetts
American people of Dutch descent
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American women artists
American women academics