STEPHEN FISHER (b. Sunbury, Pennsylvania, 1954)
First Light, 1981
etching

Collection of the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts
The Jack Blanton Collection
Gift of Jack Blanton
2007.23.19

Stephen Fisher is an art professor at Rhode Island College who clearly numbers himself among students of the printmaker’s craft. Careful inspection of First Light or its companion January Thaw (exhibited elsewhere in the building) reveals his superlative technical achievement as an etcher. His vision and his skill turn unremarkable scenes of woods and fields into poetic ruminations on light, shadow, and time in the natural world, creating images that one viewer has said “look better than real life.” The quotation is from an award citation from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, which frequently has acclaimed Fisher’s work.

Fisher’s work is represented in the collections of museums including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Yale University Art Museum.