Janet Fish

Many of her paintings include elements of transparency (plastic wrap, water), reflected light,[1] and multiple overlapping patterns depicted in bold, high color values.

Janet Isobel Fish[2] was born on (1938-05-18) May 18, 1938 (age 86) in Boston, Massachusetts,[3] and was raised in Bermuda, where her family moved when she was ten years old.

Her father was professor of art history Peter Stuyvesant Fish and her mother was sculptor and potter Florence Whistler Voorhees.

[4] Her instructor for an introductory painting class was Alex Katz, who encouraged students to explore the shows in New York galleries which expanded Fish's knowledge of the art world.

[7] During that period, art schools tended to favor the teaching of Abstract Expressionism,[14] influencing Fish's burgeoning artistic style.

"[4] Her fellow Yale students included Chuck Close, Richard Serra, Brice Marden, Nancy Graves, Sylvia[13] and Robert Mangold, and Rackstraw Downes.

[4] 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.

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.

[20] A writer for The New York Times said that Fish's "ambitious still life painting helped resuscitate realism in the 1970's" and that she imbued everyday objects with a "bold optical and painterly energy".