4 Glasses 1974

Janet Fish made this artwork titled ‘4 Glasses’ using what looks like pastel or paint stick, smudged and layered. You can see the process right there on the surface! There’s something so lovely about the way Fish deals with reflections in these glasses. The light isn’t realistic, it’s expressive, like a catalogue of color and texture. The way the individual strokes stay present, almost like stained glass. The bottom of the glass on the front left is fascinating. It dissolves into horizontal lines, almost vibrating with color. It’s not quite representational, yet it’s very effective. Fish feels like a successor to Bonnard in the way she treats everyday life as a vehicle for thinking about color, light, and mark-making. It’s that embrace of ambiguity, that makes the work so appealing.