Full Description
Born in 1885 to a working-class family in Connecticut, Milton Avery left school at 16 to work in a factory. Intending to study lettering but soon transferring to painting, he attended evening school for fifteen years before moving to New York in the 1920s to pursue a career as a painter.
Although he never identified with a particular movement, Avery was a sociable member of the New York art scene. He became a figure of considerable influence for a younger generation of American artists, including Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman. His talent was praised by Rothko, who said of his work 'the poetry penetrated every pore of the canvas to the last touch of the brush'.
Edith Devaney introduces Avery and his work, while Erin Monroe looks at Avery's early years in Hartford, and Marla Price examines Matisse's influence upon his art. A conversation with the artist's daughter March Avery Cavanaugh and an illustrated chronology by Isabella Boorman complete the book.
Contents
Foreword 13
Acknowledgements 16
Milton Avery: 'Poet-Inventor' 19
Edith Devaney
The Landscape of Milton Avery's 31
Connecticut Years
Erin C. Monroe
Avery and Matisse 37
Marla Price
Understanding Milton Avery 45
A conversation with his daughter March Avery
Cavanaugh and his grandson Sean Cavanaugh
Waqas Wajahat
Catalogue plates
Early Work: Landscape 54
Early Work: The City 72
Early Work: Domestic 82
Portraits 90
Innovation in Colour and Form 98
Late Work 114
Chronology 137
Isabella Boorman
Endnotes 144
Further Reading 146
Lenders to the Exhibition 146
Photographic Acknowledgements 147
Index 148
