Text by Edith Devaney, Erin Monroe, Marla Price, Waqas Wajahat.
An essential overview of the beloved master colorist and pioneer of American modernism
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 15 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 that “the poetry penetrated every pore of the canvas to the last touch of the brush.” With more than 100 color reproductions, this volume is the first overview of Avery’s pioneering work in many years. 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. Milton Avery (1885–1965) was born in upstate New York and studied at the Connecticut League of Art Students and the Art Society in Hartford before moving to Manhattan, where he began his career, in 1925. His works are in museum collections worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art, Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
ABOVE: "Beach Blankets," 1960. Oil on canvas, 136.2 × 181.9 cm (535/8 × 715/8 inches). Wichita Art Museum. Gift of Marian and S. O. Beren, Wichita, Kansas.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Guardian
Jonathan Jones
Makes it apparent that Avery was not merely a predecessor of this great art movement, or even its godparent. He is a true abstract expressionist who happens not to “veil” the imagery.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
"Little Fox River" (1942) is reproduced from Milton Avery, published to accompany the Royal Academy's "brilliant" exhibition on the "experimental dreamer whose sublime landscapes and beach scenes paved the way for Rothko, Pollock and Newman," according to a recent review in the Guardian. Of Avery's beach scenes, essayist Edith Devaney writes, "Of the sixty or so oil paintings Avery created in Provincetown or based on Provincetown sketches, only five or six contain human figures. The seascape is transformed into areas of thin washes of oil paint, often with little or no visible brushwork. Many of these works… are brilliant abstract treatments of nature, their subjects unidentifiable without their titles."
IMAGE CREDIT: "Little Fox River," 1942, oil on canvas, 91.8 × 122.2 cm (361/8 × 481/8 inches), Collection Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York. Gift of Roy R. Neuberger.
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 10.5 in. / 144 pgs / 120 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $60 ISBN: 9781912520435 PUBLISHER: Royal Academy of Arts AVAILABLE: 11/9/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Royal Academy of Arts. Text by Edith Devaney, Erin Monroe, Marla Price, Waqas Wajahat.
An essential overview of the beloved master colorist and pioneer of American modernism
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 15 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 that “the poetry penetrated every pore of the canvas to the last touch of the brush.”
With more than 100 color reproductions, this volume is the first overview of Avery’s pioneering work in many years. 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.
Milton Avery (1885–1965) was born in upstate New York and studied at the Connecticut League of Art Students and the Art Society in Hartford before moving to Manhattan, where he began his career, in 1925. His works are in museum collections worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art, Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
