Milton Avery

MILTON AVERY (1885 - 1965): Milton Avery was an influential American modernist painter celebrated for his lyrical use of color, simplified forms, and distinctive balance between representation and abstraction. Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Hartford, Connecticut, as a teenager and studied part-time at local art schools while supporting himself through a variety of jobs. After moving to New York City, Avery became part of the city's artistic community and married the painter and illustrator Sally Michel, with whom he worked closely throughout his career. His subjects included landscapes, seascapes, figures, portraits, and still lifes, which he increasingly reduced to broad, harmonious areas of color and simplified shapes. Influenced by artists such as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Avery developed a highly personal style that helped bridge American modernism and the emerging color-field movement. He became an important influence on younger artists including Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb, and his work was exhibited extensively, including a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1960. Avery's paintings are held in major museum collections throughout the United States, including the National Gallery of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.