Edward Fisk, a native of New York City, studied art in Paris, France, where he participated in the Gertrude Stein salon. He was also active in the art circles of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and Greenwich Village, where he was a colleague of Charles Demuth and Marsden Hartley. He was a lifelong friend of Stuart Davis and the playwright Eugene O'Neill. Fisk came to Kentucky in 1926 to teach at the University of Kentucky, retiring in 1941.