Jennifer Landes reviews Fairfield Porter: Things as They Are at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, on view through December 10, 2016.

Landes notes: “Porter’s subjects are quotidian, even banal. [Karen] Wilkin says [in her catalogue essay] that in that way he was a 20th-century Vermeer: ‘He could make nothing in particular seem as if it were of great significance, simply by painting it.’ She notes also that his still lifes lack the Mediterranean light and French glamor of Bonnard. ‘Porter scrutinized a WASP-y, modern day Arcadia, a place of genteel, slightly down at the heels comfort, ample backyards, and generous porches,’ she writes.”