Janet Fish facts for kids

Black Bowl Red Scarf by Janet Fish

Janet Fish (born May 18, 1938) is a famous American artist. She is known for her amazing realist paintings. Janet Fish uses oil paints, lithography, and screenprinting. She loves to show how light plays on everyday objects. Her art often features things like glass, water, and shiny surfaces. She is credited with making still life painting popular again.

Janet Fish: Early Life and Art Education

Janet Isobel Fish was born on May 18, 1938, in Boston, Massachusetts. When she was ten, her family moved to Bermuda. She grew up surrounded by art and artists. Her dad, Peter Stuyvesant Fish, taught art history. Her mom, Florence Whistler Voorhees, was a sculptor and potter. Her sister, Alida, is a photographer. Even her grandfather, Clark Voorhees, was a painter! Her uncle and his wife were also artists.

Janet knew early on she wanted to be an artist. She said, "I came from a family of artists, and I always made art and knew I wanted to be an artist." She was very good at ceramics and first wanted to be a sculptor. As a teenager, she even helped sculptor Byllee Lang in her studio.

College and Art School

Janet went to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. There, she focused on sculpture and printmaking. She also studied at the Art Students League of New York one summer. In 1960, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith. The next year, she spent a summer at The Skowhegan School of Art in Skowhegan, Maine.

From 1960 to 1963, Janet attended Yale University School of Art and Architecture. This is where she decided to switch from sculpture to painting. Her teacher, Alex Katz, told students to visit art galleries in New York. This helped Janet learn a lot about the art world. At that time, many art schools taught Abstract Expressionism. This style uses shapes and colors, not real-life objects. But Janet wanted to paint real things. She felt that "Abstract Expressionism didn't mean anything to me. It was a set of rules."

Some of her classmates at Yale became famous artists too. They included Chuck Close and Richard Serra. In 1963, Janet Fish was one of the first women to get a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale.

Janet Fish's Art Style and Subjects

Janet Fish didn't like the Abstract Expressionism style taught at Yale. She wanted to paint "physical presence of objects." She wanted to connect with real things in the world. Her art is rooted in older traditions like still life paintings from the Netherlands. But she makes them feel modern and fresh. Her paintings show simple, everyday things. Yet, they are full of detail and bright, tropical colors. These colors remind her of her childhood in Bermuda.

Janet is very interested in painting light. She also likes to paint "packaging," like jars, cellophane, and wrappers. She often paints clear glass objects. These can be empty or partly filled with liquids like water or juice. She paints glasses, bottles, goblets, and even a fishbowl with a goldfish! Other things she loves to paint include teacups, flowers, patterned fabrics, and shiny surfaces.

Some people call Janet Fish's work "Photorealist" or "New Realism." This means it looks almost like a photograph. However, she doesn't see herself as a photorealist. Her use of colors and how she arranges things shows her unique view as a painter, not a photographer.

Janet Fish: Personal Life and Teaching

After finishing Yale, Janet Fish lived in Philadelphia for a year. Then she moved to SoHo, a neighborhood in New York City. She became friends with another artist, Louise Nevelson.

Janet Fish also taught art at several schools. She taught at the School of Visual Arts and Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. She also taught at Syracuse University and the University of Chicago.

Janet Fish lives and paints in her loft in SoHo, New York City. She also has a farmhouse in Middletown Springs, Vermont.

Exhibitions and Recognition

Janet Fish had her first solo art show in 1967. It was at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford, New Jersey. Two years later, she had her first show in New York. She has shown her art over 75 times in many places. These include galleries and museums across the country and around the world.

Selected Exhibitions

• Janet Fish, Pinwheels & Poppies Paintings 1980–2008, DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2017 (solo show)
• Janet Fish, Glass Plastic, The Early Years 1968-1978, DC Moore Gallery, New York, 2016 (solo show)
• The Annual 2015: The Depth of the Surface, National Academy of Design, New York, 2015 (group show)
• This American Life, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, 2014 (group show)
• Janet Fish, Panopoly, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, 2013 (solo show)
• Janet Fish, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, 2006 (solo show)
• The Art of Janet Fish, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME, 2004 (solo show)
• Janet Fish, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM, 2004 (solo show)
• Janet Fish, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL, 2003 (solo show)
• Janet Fish, The Columbus Museum Columbus, GA, 2000 (solo show)
• 76 Jefferson, 1976, Museum of Modern Art (group show)
• New York Exhibition, 1969 (solo show)
• Fairleigh Dickinson University, Rutherford, New Jersey, 1967 (solo show)

Awards and Praise

Art critics have praised Janet Fish's work. One critic, Gerrit Henry, called her the "acknowledged master of the contemporary still life." A writer for The New York Times said her paintings helped bring realism back in the 1970s. They said she gave everyday objects "bold optical and painterly energy." Critic Vincent Katz agreed, saying Janet Fish "revitalized the still-life genre." This is a big deal because still life was once seen as a less important type of painting.

The American painter Eric Fischl also admires Janet Fish. He said, "She's one of the most interesting realists of her generation. Her work is a touchstone, and tremendously influential."

Janet Fish has received many 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, 1990
• Hubbard Museum Award, 1991
• Aspen Art Museum Woman in Arts Award, 1993
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, 1994
• Smith College Medal, 2012

Her artwork is also part of the permanent collections in many museums.

Museum Collections