Milton Avery - A Sense of Place

MILTON AVERY A

S E N S E

O F

P L A C E

MILTON AV E RY A SENSE OF PLACE

FOREWORD BY

Timothy Rub

WW

WAQAS WAJAHAT

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

5

Timothy Rub

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

9

Robert Manley & Waqas Wajahat

PLATES

10

CONVERSATION

137

Sean Cavanaugh & Waqas Wajahat

CHRONOLOGY Melissa de Medeiros & Regina Parra

148

Milton Avery sketching Gloucester, c. 1930s

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FOREWORD

Some years ago, when I was Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, I made

still, the capturing—of a sense of place is essential to understanding

the acquaintance of an elderly gentleman who intended to bequeath his

what Avery was trying to achieve. This is perhaps most easily seen, and

collection to us. Although he had largely focused on early modern photography

felt, in the landscapes he painted in the 1920s and 1930s, during which

and was deeply interested in the subject, he readily admitted to me that

he summered first in Gloucester for over a ten-year period and later in

among the many works he had acquired over the course of several decades

the Green Mountains in Vermont and on the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec.

of collecting, his favorite was a painting by Milton Avery.

Not surprisingly, these bear the stamp of the regionalist aesthetic that Titled, in the artist’s laconic way, Foam on the Rocks and dating to 1949,

became one of the dominant strains of American painting between the

the work is simplicity itself: a network of roughly painted white lines on

two world wars. Even so they also clearly reflect Avery’s growing embrace

a black field comprises most of the surface. The black shape—clearly the

of modernism as he continued to mature as a colorist and to simplify his

rock of the title—angles down from the top left corner, revealing a gray sky

pictorial compositions into arrangements of flat shapes in contrasting

beyond and, just above it, the ragged edge of a wave can be seen receding

colors and tones.

back into the sea.

The outcome of this process as it unfolded over the course of the 1940s None of these individual figurative elements could perhaps be recognized

and thereafter is the Avery that we know best and admire the most today.

as such without the aid of the title that Avery gave to the painting; but with

It is tempting to say that works like Hint of Autumn, painted in 1954 in

it they snap into focus, delighting the viewer with the recognition of its

New Hampshire, or Dark Pool, painted a few years earlier in upstate New

subject and the opportunity to appreciate the subtle visual patterns and

York, although inspired by these specific locales, also transcended them

spatial relationships that are the hallmarks of Avery’s pictorial practice

by virtue of their abstraction, which imbues them with an iconic, almost

and animate all of his works.

universal character.

The title of this lovely and succinct survey of the artist’s career might strike

Yet nothing could be farther from the truth. Indeed, as Barbara Haskell

the reader, at first blush, as a bit shopworn and predictable. But it is entirely

observed in her brilliant study of Avery published nearly 40 years ago,

apt and gets right to the point in insisting that the expression—or, better

as reductive as his work may have come to be—to the point at which it

5

bordered on abstraction—it was always firmly rooted in things he had

Waqas Wajahat, is a welcome sign of things to come, with an ambitious

seen and felt, in the particulars of a specific place. For the artist this

retrospective, organized by Edith Devaney and the Royal Academy in

could be found not only in the panoramic view distilled into the salient

London, scheduled to open at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

elements of land, sea, and sky for which he is so widely admired, but

this November. It will then travel to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford

also—and increasingly so—in the telling detail: the undulating edge of

and, finally, to the Royal Academy next summer. For those who have not

a hill, a breaking wave, a solitary tree, or a rock on the shoreline, worn

yet had an opportunity to take the full measure of Avery’s achievement, it

down over time by the force of wind and water.

is not to be missed.

This was, in fact, what captured the attention and affection of my elderly friend, who so dearly loved the painting by Avery in his collection, Foam on

Timothy Rub

the Rocks, which was most likely inspired by the time he spent at Pemaquid Point, near Bristol, Maine, during the summer of 1948. When I asked him why he was so fond of the work, he didn’t hesitate, responding, “I can, quite literally, feel the place—the sound and weight of the wave as it breaks against the rock and drains off of its surface.”

It was Avery’s great gift to make the part stand for the whole and to invest a simple detail with the capacity to tell us far more than we assume it might a first glance. And it is what continues to endear his work to us today.

Avery’s unique place in the history of American art in the 20th century continues to be a source of fascination. Although his work has never truly fallen out of fashion with collectors, it is time for another look.

This exhibition, curated by the artist’s grandson, Sean Cavanaugh, and

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The George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer Philadelphia Museum of Art

Foam on the Rocks, 1949, oil on canvas, 22 x 28 inches (55.8 x 71.1 cm) Collection Cincinatti Art Museum, Ohio

Milton Avery Foam on the Rocks 1949 Oil on canvas 22 x 28 inches (55.88 x 71.12 cm) # 12758

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“The facts do not interest me so much as the essence of nature.

I never have rules to follow.

I follow myself.”

Milton Avery in his New York studio, c. 1930s

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is an honor for Phillips and Waqas Wajahat to present this carefully

We are delighted to have a perceptive and succinct foreword, written

selected exhibition of works by Milton Avery (1885–1965). Focusing on

for this publication by Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director

his unique distillation of atmosphere in both the landscape and domestic

and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, whose

scenes, “Milton Avery: A Sense of Place”, brings together a treasured group

pitch-perfect clarity and elegance match Avery’s own aesthetic sensibility.

of works from across three decades.

Additionally, this publication includes an insightful conversation between Sean Cavanaugh and Waqas Wajahat, which explores the idea of settings

Avery’s pivotal breakthrough, in balancing color and form in his work,

in the artist’s work.

was an inspiration to the young emerging Abstract Expressionists who befriended him. Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko,

Waqas Wajahat has been working with the Milton Avery Trust and the Avery

all cite his influence in their artistic development.

family for over twenty years, and this exhibition has been realized as a result of his long professional relationship with Robert Manley, International

Using a pared down composition and carefully blended layers of lambent

Co-Head of 20th Century and Contemporary Art and Deputy Chairman. We

color, Avery unerringly suggests a sense of place, mood, and atmosphere.

are truly grateful for the expertise, enthusiasm, and guidance of Elizabeth

Evoking many of the landscapes he took inspiration from, this exhibition

Goldberg, Senior International Specialist and Deputy Chairwoman. Finally,

includes works from Upstate New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Gaspé

our heart-felt thanks goes to Melissa de Medeiros, Regina Parra, Karen

Peninsula in Canada, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Garka-Prince, and Jenna Schneider for their commitment and support to every aspect of this exhibition.

A number of Avery’s most significant works revolve around landscapes and seascapes, making Phillips Southampton a natural location for this presentation. We are truly grateful to have the direct support and encouragement of the artist’s daughter, March Avery, and his grandson, Sean Cavanaugh, at the Milton Avery Trust. Many of the works on view have not been seen in several years with a number coming from

Robert Manley & Waqas Wajahat New York, June, 2021

private collections, including three from the estate of the legendary British actor and collector, Peter O’Toole.

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GASPÉ PENINSULA Québec, Canada

Ox and Cart, Gaspé 1939 Oil on canvas 25 x 30 inches 63.5 x 76.2 cm

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13

Village at Sunset 1938 Watercolor on paper 22 x 30 inches 58.4 x 76.2 cm

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Safe Harbor 1938 Watercolor on paper 22 x 30 inches 55.8 x 76.2 cm

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19

Young Pines 1938 Watercolor on paper 22 x 30 inches 55.8 x 76.2 cm

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21

Fishing Village 1939 Oil on canvas 32 x 48 inches 81.2 x 122 cm

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23

Gaspé Village 1939 Oil on canvas 28 x 36 inches 71.1 x 91.4 cm

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PORTRAITS, INTERIORS & NEW YORK CITY

Red Anemones 1942 Oil on canvas 36 x 28 inches 91.4 x 71.1 cm

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Fish Plate c. 1930s Watercolor on paper 15 1/4 x 22 5/8 inches 38.7 x 57.4 cm

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33

Young Writer 1942 Oil on canvas 48 x 32 inches 121.9 x 81.2 cm

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35

Girl with Wicker Chairs c. 1930s Watercolor on paper 22 x 15 inches 55.8 x 38.1 cm 38

Brown Jacket 1962 Oil on canvas board 24 x 18 inches 60.9 x 45.7 cm 39

Seated Woman in Orange Dress c. 1930s Gouache on dark green paper 19 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches 49.5 x 29.2 cm

40

41

Railyards c. 1930s Watercolor on paper 21 7/8 x 15 1/8 inches 55.5 x 38.4 cm

42

43

Tugboats in Harbor c. 1930s Gouache on dark gray paper 18 x 23 inches 45.7 x 58.4 cm 44

Untitled (The Thomas O’Brien Tugboat and Ice Wagon, NYC) 1941 Watercolor paper 15 x 22 inches 38.1 x 55.8 cm 45

Coney Island Lifeguards 1930 Oil on canvas 24 x 36 inches 61 x 91.4 cm

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Summer People 1929 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 inches 76.2 x 101.6 cm

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VERMONT

Spring 1941 Oil on canvas 33 x 25 inches 83.8 x 63.5 cm

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Hills and Fields 1943 Watercolor on paper 22 x 30 inches 55.8 x 76.2 cm 58

Road in Vermont 1933 Oil on canvas 25 x 34 inches 63.5 x 86.3 cm 59

Sally, Milton and March Avery Vermont, 1935

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Figures on Rock 1943 Watercolor on paper 22 x 30 inches 55.8 x 76.2 cm 62

Two by the Water c. 1934 Oil on board 17 x 24 inches 43.1 x 61 cm 63

Quarry Bathers 1937 Oil on canvas 36 x 28 inches 91.4 x 71.1 cm

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NEW HAMPSHIRE

Hint of Autumn 1954 Oil on canvas 53 1/4 x 34 inches 136.5 x 86.4 cm

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69

Very Old Orchard 1953 Watercolor on paper 22 x 30 inches 55.8 x 76.2 cm 72

Untitled (Orchard) 1953 Watercolor on paper 22 1/4 x 30 1/2 inches 56.5 x 77.4 cm 73

Quivering Trees 1954 Oil on canvas 48 x 32 inches 121.9 x 81.2 cm

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Parade of Trees 1956 Oil on canvas 30 x 38 inches 76.2 x 96.5 cm

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UPSTATE NEW YORK

Winding Stream 1962 Oil on canvas 40 x 50 inches 101.6 x 127 cm

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Bikini Bather 1962 Oil on canvas 36 x 50 inches 91.4 x 127 cm

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85

Bird by Lake 1962 Oil on canvas 22 x 28 inches 55.8 x 71.1 cm

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89

Dark Lake 1962 Oil on paper 23 x 35 inches 58.4 x 88.9 cm

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91

Country Lawn 1962 Oil on paper 23 x 35 inches 58.4 x 88.9 cm 92

Outdoor Girl 1962 Oil and gouache on paper 23 x 35 inches 58.4 x 88.9 cm 93

Road to the Hills 1962 Oil and gouache on paper 23 x 35 inches 58.4 x 88.9 cm

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The Avery Family, Byrdcliffe Studio Woodstock, 1950

Dark Pool 1950 Oil on canvas 32 x 48 inches 81.2 x 122 cm

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CAPE COD

Solitary Boat 1960 Oil on canvas 50 x 72 inches 127 x 182.8 cm

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105

Pedicure 1959 Watercolor on paper 24 x 18 inches 61 x 45.7 cm

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Tender Birds 1962 Oil on panel 22 x 28 inches 55.8 x 71.1 cm

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House on Pier 1955 Oil on canvas 38 x 45 inches 96.5 x 114.3 cm

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White Gull Resting 1963 Oil on canvas board 14 7/8 x 29 7/8 inches 37.8 x 76 cm

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Soaring Gull 1957-59 Oil and charcoal on paper 20 x 26 inches 50.8 x 66 cm

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Bird by Wild Sea 1961 Oil on canvas board 22 1/8 x 27 7/8 inches 56.2 x 71 cm

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Milton Avery at Peter Hunt House Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1958

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Abandoned Pier 1957 Watercolor on paper 20 x 26 inches 50.8 x 66 cm

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Fishing Wharf 1957 Watercolor, gouache and oil crayon on paper 17 x 22 inches 43.1 x 55.8 cm

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127

Gulls in Rippled Sea 1963 Oil on canvas board 15 x 30 inches 38.1 x 76.2 cm

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”

Pier 1960 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 inches 76.2 x 101.6 cm

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Red Boat in Green Sea 1960 Watercolor and gouache on paper 23 x 35 inches 55.8 x 88.9 cm

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A CONVERSATION between the artist’s grandson, Sean Cavanaugh Waqas Wajahat

&

137

Milton Avery at home sketching New York, c. 1948

138

New York City August, 2020

WW

I am intrigued to know how you perceive the way your grandfather was able to evoke a sense of place. In what way were locations and places important to him?

SC

I only know my grandfather through stories my grandmother and mother told me and obviously through his work which tells the story of all the places he visited and painted. Initially, most of the travel was to get away from New York and the hot humid summers, especially during the war years. It then turned into this ritual of summer travel and a way to gather visual material and use it throughout the long winters back in New York.

WW SC

How were the travel destinations chosen and how deliberate was the planning?

It was always sort of free form, “oh, we hear so and so goes to this town.” They would just drive there and not really have anywhere to stay. Or someone would tell them about a reasonable barn or a cottage to rent.

WW

I love the story your mother once told me of their summer in Gaspé Peninsula, 1938.

With no plan in place, they jumped in the car and drove there.

SC

My grandfather loved to drive so he was only too happy to do long days in the car every day. When they got there, I think they ended up in a cabin or shack near the beach for two months. My mother must’ve been six and remembers the villagers coming down to watch her swim. These were old-fashioned fishing communities and had no tradition of swimming for pleasure, not to mention the water was freezing cold.

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The Avery family at the Blaffer family estate Ste. Anne’s, Grafton, Ontario, 1947

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WW

Let’s get back to this idea of going someplace and painting there. How would they choose where to go?

SC

I think some of the locations were word of mouth from friends and fellow artists.

And then there were always the artist colony circuit—like Yaddo and MacDowell.

WW

Your mother grew up seeing her parents driving to places to paint. From what you know, was there a lot of plein air painting?

SC

I would say almost all of my grandfather’s paintings usually started from plein air sketches with detailed notations of color and even hues. I think after the 1920s and early 1930s, he really wasn’t doing any plein air painting but was always sketching.

WW

Gaspé in 1938, has been hailed by art historians as a breakthrough summer for Avery.

Were any of those celebrated watercolors that summer actually done outside or were they mostly made from plein air sketches?

SC

All the watercolors were indeed done there that summer, but I don’t think he is carrying big sheets of watercolor paper up the hill. For example, Safe Harbor, in this exhibition, is surely coming off a sketch. But he’s not actually walking Gaspé with all his brushes and everything.

WW

Are the compositions then mostly based on what he was seeing or is he adding on to them later in the studio?

SC WW

If anything, he is subtracting rather than adding. He was always paring down.

When we were curating this exhibition, both of us wanted to include works from New York City, given the city was such an in-depth resource for Avery’s creativity—then and always. We have Chop Suey, Railyards, Tugboats, and interiors scenes which offer a window into his domestic surroundings, like Red Anemones.

SC

My mother always loved Red Anemones—the alligator was glass and the goat is one of my mother’s ceramics which she made in school.

141

Milton and Sally Avery with Gershon Benjamin and Zelda Cohen, Thomas Nagai and Paula Rosen Gloucester, Massachusetts, c. 1930-31

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WW

Most artists arrange still-lives before painting them. Do you think Avery was arranging his compositions before painting them?

SC

Knowing what I do, I would say not really, it’s just whatever is there—I don’t think there was a lot of arranging if any.

WW

Young Writer from 1942 is a portrait of your mother. Given the date, I assume it is the 11th Street apartment?

SC WW SC

Yes, by 1942, my grandparents are in the West Village.

What are the objects in this painting—are any of them familiar to you?

Some, we still have this little copper pitcher, it came out of a bar that my great grandfather owned in Brooklyn. They were measuring pitchers and we had a whole set of them once. The photograph in the frame is of my mother.

WW

Avery uses his pigments with such remarkable economy. The lamp and March’s legs are both rendered almost the same pale chalky pink and I find it quite interesting how he creates negative space by revealing parts of an old Connecticut landscape underneath to show through in her socks.

SC

Why would you paint it again if it is already what you want. It’s like he’s channeling Yankee economy and ingenuity

WW

The next painting is Spring, 1941, Vermont during the war years. Are those the woods in or around Jamaica?.

SC

Yes, they started going there as early as 1935 or 1936. It’s a painting of my mother skinny-dipping, she was probably nine.

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Sally and Milton Avery Collinsville, Connecticut, 1930

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WW SC

Do you think Spring is based on a single sketch or is it a few studies put together?

Definitely a few. It does seem a little more fantastical than others, I would guess it is several different locations coming together.

WW

There are several works from summers in Provincetown, including Abandoned Pier, and Fishing Wharf. Does March remember going and visiting them there?

SC

For sure, my mother and father went out to see them every summer. Milton and Sally had this amazing live-in-studio with the water right below them. It was on the second floor and had great light and plenty of room to paint large canvases.

WW

Much has been said about Avery’s acceptance of abstraction and subsequent rejection of absolute abstraction. Gulls in Rippled Sea from 1963 is a late work that evokes the late afternoon shimmering Cape Cod light. It is almost a pure abstraction for the most part but then he decides to add the birds, almost as an afterthought.

SC

I agree, it does appear abstract but it’s more like a monotype abstraction. I think my grandfather always wanted to start in reality and move away from it. It was his way of getting his point across without having to say very much.

WW

Do you think he was trying to capture a feeling of a place or was he just painting what he was seeing?

SC

I think his mission was purely to create a good painting. He was not somebody who wanted to paint the same painting every day. He liked different imagery and was energized by it. It forced him out of his comfort zone, to paint places he had not been before. In that way, different locations and different places were very important to him. That was what he loved about traveling, going different places meant new material, and a new way of looking.

145

WW

That makes great sense. How do you think the change in locations informed his color palette?

SC

In Vermont, one summer it rained constantly and everything around was lush and green. By mid-summer, my grandfather said, “If I don’t paint with green ever again, I’ll be fine, if I have to see another landscape that is fifty shades of green, I will start painting crazy colors in it.” And he did!

WW

It’s obvious that he was completely turned on by shapes and colors and it seems that while he was observing the landscape, and sketching it, he was also breaking it down.

SC

It is a non-teachable thing. In his mind it was all there already.

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CHRONOLOGY

1885

Milton Clark Avery born 7 March, the youngest of four children, to Russell N and Esther March Avery in Sand Bank (later re-named Altmar), New York.

1898

Family moves to Wilson Station, near East Hartford, Connecticut.

1901

Begins working at the Hartford Machine and Screw Company; employed for next two years, first as an aligner, then as an assembler.

1904

Works for Underwood Manufacturing Company for the next six years as an assembler, a latheman and subsequently a mechanic.

1906

Avery briefly enrolls in a lettering class at the Connecticut League of Art Students, Hartford.

Class discontinued after one month; persuaded to transfer to life-drawing class for the rest of term by League director. Remains at the League until 1918.

1911

Avery sufficiently committed to art by this time to list his occupation as that of artist.

1915

First public exhibition in “Fifth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture”, Annex Gallery, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut.

Wadsworth Atheneum

1916

Resumes job as assembler at the Underwood Manufacturing Company.

1917

Begins working as a file clerk at the Travelers Insurance Companies, where he remains for five years. Takes the 6 pm to midnight time to paint in the daytime.

1918

Transfers to the School of the Art Society of Hartford.

1919

Wins top honors in portrait and life-drawing classes at the School of the Art Society of Hartford.

148

Screw Factory in Connecticut

1920

Visits Gloucester, Massachusetts, for the first time.

1921

Summer. Returns to Gloucester, where he spends the next several summers.

1923

Begins working at United States Tire and Rubber Company.

1924

Summer. Meets Sally Michel in Gloucester.

Employed as construction worker in East Hartford.

1925

Moves to New York City with artist friend Wallace Putnam, in order to be with Sally.

1926

Attends Art Students League sketch class several evenings a week, a practice he continues through 1938.

An Art Students League class

Marry Sally Michel. The couple lives in a one room apartment in Lincoln Arcade, a studio complex at 1931 Broadway on the corner of Sixty-fifth Street.

Sally works as a freelance illustrator for Progressive Grocer; which her sister edits, in order to allow Avery to paint full time; later she illustrates ads for Macy’s department store.

1927

Summer. Paints watercolors and gouaches on half sheets of dark construction paper.

Included in Independents exhibition, his first exhibition in New York City.

1928

Bernard Karfiol selects two paintings by Avery from among two hundred submissions for an Opportunity Gallery group show; other participants include Mark Rothko.

Beginning of friendship between Avery and Rothko.

Milton Avery, Rothko with Pipe, 1936

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1929

Awarded The Atheneum Prize for Brooklyn Bridge (1929) in the annual Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts exhibition.

Meets Adolph Gottlieb.

First painting to enter a museum collection: Duncan Phillips purchases Winter Riders (1929) Winter Riders, 1929 The Phillips Collection

for the Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1930

Awarded Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Prize for White Horse in the annual watercolor exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.

1931

Summer in Gloucester.

1932

Summer in Gloucester with Gottlieb, Rothko and Barnett Newman.

Birth of his daughter, March.

1933

Summer in Gloucester.

1934

Summer in Gloucester with Rothko.

Detail of Striped Umbrella by the Bay, 1934, page 153

1935

Summer in Vermont.

Joins the Valentine Gallery. First one-man show.

The Nursemaid (1934) is purchased by Dr. Albert Barnes; Barnes Foundation.

The Nursemaid, 1934 Barnes Foundation

1936

Summer in Vermont.

1937

Summer in Vermont with the Gottliebs and Newmans.

1938

Summer in Gaspé Peninsula, Québec, Canada.

Stops attending the Art Students League; instead, Averys and friends hire a model several times a week and sketch at each other’s homes.

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1939

Summer in Vermont.

1940

Summer in Vermont.

Sally gets as job as illustrator for the “Parent & Child” column in the The New York Times Magazine.

1941

Summer. Drives cross-country to California.

1942

Summer in New York because of wartime gas rationing.

Last show with the Valentine Gallery.

1943

A gas station alerts drivers of their last chance to fill up without a ration card.

Summer in Gloucester with the Gottliebs and Rothkos.

Spring. Leaves the Valentine Gallery and joins Paul Rosenberg & Co. Has first show there in June.

Detail of Gulls in Fog, 1945, page 155

1944

Summer in Gloucester.

Avery first one-man museum exhibition opens at Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1945

Summer in Gloucester Concurrent exhibitions at the Rosenberg and Durand-Ruel galleries; shows with both

Woman by the Sea, 1945, page 161

dealers for next five years.

1946

Summer in Mexico for three months.

1947

Summer in Canada.

His first retrospective survey opens at the Durand Ruel Galleries, New York

Milton Avery’s first retrospective Duran Ruel Galleries, NY

1948

Summer in Pemaquid Point, Maine.

Receives his first prize for the watercolor Sea & Rocks (1944) in the “Baltimore National Watercolor Exhibition”, the Baltimore Museum of Art. Health very poor, advised by doctor to remain at home.

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Striped Umbrella by the Bay 1934 Watercolor on board 11 x 15 inches 28 x 38.1 cm

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Gulls in Fog 1945 Watercolor on board 22 1/8 x 30 1/2 inches 56.2 x 77.4 cm

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155

1949

Suffers a major heart attack; in hospital for six weeks.

Spends winter at the Research Art Colony for writers and painters in Maitland, Florida.

Maitand Center, Florida

1950

Summer at the MacDowell Colony.

Winter. Returns to the Research Art Colony, Maitland, Florida.

1951

Bird and Fish, 1952, page 159

Summer in Woodstock.

Joins the newly opened Grace Borgenitch Gallery; has his first exhibition there.

1952

Summer in Europe for the first time. Travels to London, Paris and the French Riviera.

Retrospective exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

1953

Summer. Residency at the MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire.

1954

Summer in MacDowell Colony.

1955

Summer at Yaddo, an art colony near Saratoga Springs, New York.

1956

Summer in MacDowell Colony.

1957

Summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Executes first large-format canvases.

Greenberg publishes a major article on Avery in Arts.

Arts Magazine

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1958

Summer in Provincetown.

Exhibits large-format paintings at the HCE Gallery in Provincetown.

1959

Suffers deteriorating health. On the advice of his doctor, spends the winter in Key West, Florida to recuperate.

The Averys move to Central Park West, New York.

Time magazine review, 1958

1960

Summer in Provincetown Retrospective exhibition, organised by the American Federation of Arts, opens at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Whitney Museum, 1960

Suffers a second heart attack.

1961

Summer in New York because of health.

1962

Hilton Kramer writes the first monograph on Avery, Milton Avery: Paintings, 1930–1960.

1964

Paints his last painting in February.

1965

Milton Avery dies 3 January at Montefiore Hospital, The Bronx, New York.

He is buried in the Artists’ Cemetery, Woodstock, New York.

On 7 January, a memorial service is held at the Society for Ethical Culture, New York.

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Bird and Fish 1952 Oil on canvas 28 x 36 inches 71.2 x 91.4 cm

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Woman by the Sea 1945 Oil on canvas 30 x 37 inches 76.2 x 94 cm

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PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS

Page 1: Milton and March Avery, Badlands National Monument, South Dakota, 1941 Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 3: Milton Avery and wife, Sally, in their Studio with Dark Pool, 1950, in the background, Woodstock, New York, 1950.

Photograph Arthur Rothstein. Courtesy Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey Page 4: Milton Avery sketching, Gloucester, c. 1930s Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 8: Milton Avery in his New York studio, c. 1930s Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 60: Sally, Milton and March Avery, Vermont, 1935 Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 96: The Avery Family, Byrdcliffe Studio, Woodstock, 1950 Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 123: Milton Avery at Peter Hunt House, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1958 Photograph by Philip Cavanaugh.

Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 136: Milton and March Avery, near Jamaica, Vermont, c. 1937 Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 138: Milton Avery at home sketching, c.1948 Photograph Alfred Puhn. Courtesy Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Page 140: The Avery family at the Blaffer family estate, Ste. Anne’s, Grafton, Ontario, 1947 Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 142: Milton & Sally Avery with Gershon Benjamin & Zelda Cohen, Thomas Nagai & Paula Rosen, Gloucester, Massachusetts, c. 1930-31 Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 144: Sally and Milton Avery, Collinsville, Connecticut, 1930 Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Page 146: Sally and Milton Avery, Gloucester, 1945 Private Collection. Courtesy of and © 2021 The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York

Published by Phillips & Waqas Wajahat in association with The Milton Avery Trust, New York On the occasion of the exhibition Milton Avery: A Sense of Place July 1—July 31, 2021 Phillips Southampton 1 Hampton Rd, Southampton, NY 11968 PHILLIPS.COM + 1 212 • 848 • 1750 WAQASWAJAHAT.COM + 1 212 • 219 • 1817

Artwork: © 2021 The Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Publication: © 2021 Phillips © 2021 Waqas Wajahat Foreword: © 2021 Timothy Rub Conversation: © 2020 Sean Cavanaugh & Waqas Wajahat Artwork Photography: Adam Reich & Jean Bourbon Post Production: Alessandro Penazzi Copy Editing: Jaffir Jones Wajahat Design: Regina Parra

Cover: Solitary Boat, 1960 (detail), page 105

Special thanks to Victoria Miro, London

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