Fairfield Porter
DOUBLE PORTRAIT, 1968
Oil on canvas
29 x 36 in
73.7 x 91.4 cm
Available at Surovek Gallery
An exhibit of the works of Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) are currently on view at the Art Students League in New York.
Porter attended the Art Students League after graduating from Harvard in 1928. He moved to New York and continued his studies at the League, where he was taught by Thomas Hart Benton.
Porter’s career progressed slowly, with his first New York show in 1952. He was better known as an art critic, writing for Art News and reviewing about twelve gallery shows a month from 1951 to 1967. His art was included in six annual group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1959 through 1968.
Porter was very supportive of other artist, like Alex Katz (b. 1927) who, like Porter himself, painted the friends, family and the landscapes that surrounded him. The feeling, from Katz, was mutual:
[Katz’s best work] reminds me of the first experience, of a first experience in nature, the first experience of seeing... It must be that first ‘timeness.’ The world starts in this picture. - Fairfield Porter
Fairfield Porter is a painter of great refinement and subtlety. He has a strong technique and a wonderful sense of place... The realistic world he painted always had a great deal of style. - Alex Katz
The exhibition at the League includes more than 35 works, including pieces on loan from the Parrish Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and private collections, alongside several works from the Art Students League’s permanent collection.
Fairfield Porter: What Everyone Knows will be on view at the Art Students League through August 18, 2026.
The works of Alex Katz are currently of view at Kunsthalle Tübingen in Germany, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Seoul and a survey of Katz’s drawing are on view at the Colby College Museum of Art in Maine.
Katz's works will be shown, alongside those of Henri Matisse, at the Musée Matisse in Nice, France from October 21, 2026 though January 18, 2027 and will be part of a group exhibition, Histories of Landscapes. From Monet to Hockney (1890 - 2025) Curated by Pierre Wat, at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris from September 24, 2026 through January 31, 2027. The group show will travel to Musée de Grenoble, France and be on view from March 5, 2027 through July 4, 2027.
Please contact us if you would like more information about the work of Fairfield Porter, Alex Katz and Thomas Hart Benton available at Surovek Gallery.
