March Avery: In the Studio by Waddington Custot

In the Studio ‘I am happiest in my studio’, says American painter March Avery, ‘I try to work every day. Painting is what makes life worthwhile.’ Now in her 90th year, Avery paints with passion and discipline in her home studio on the 16th floor of a beautiful Art Deco building in New York. With large windows, the lightfilled space gives Avery views out to the west over the Hudson River to New Jersey beyond, with a long vista overlooking the reservoir in Central Park to the east. There, surrounded by the New York skyline and its everchanging light, Avery works from a vast archive of drawings. Arranged in albums recording the date and place she made each sketch, for instance, ‘1980 LA’, Avery marks those she wants to revisit as paintings with Post-it notes. When selecting a drawing, Avery feels no emotional tug; she is not trying to recreate her personal response to a subject nor transport herself back in time. Instead, she simply seeks compositions that work well as paintings. The character of her line drawings reflects this aesthetic approach. Assured, with little detail and no cross-hatching or shading, they show that even in direct observation Avery is thinking as a painter, composing the world. Confronting the activity of painting through a Modernist lens, Avery’s drawings become compositional frames, armatures on which to hang colour. Her palette reflects the same approach, the colours she uses chosen for their aesthetic qualities rather than their resonance with a subject. With no planning, Avery picks colours as she feels there and then, starting with the first, looking at the canvas until the next colour comes to her, and so on. 1

What a magnificent colourist this process makes her. Avery combines rich hues of like intensity in curious juxtapositions to render her scenes captivating. Her bold and assured palette aligns Avery’s painting with that of her contemporary, Etel Adnan. In Young Forrest, 1970, p. 5, the intense cobalt blue tree and dark aqua ground are luminous against a grey-brown terrain and putty-coloured sky; Hill Town, 1975, p. 10 picks out a hamlet of terracotta roofs in a mint green landscape. The more recent Lone Cypress, 2015, p. 17 captures the clean lines of the tree cutting upwards into an undulating horizon of silver, tangerine and lavender. Often, to achieve maximum vividness, Avery sets similar hues adjacent to one another and against complementary colours of the same value. We see this in Relaxed Woman, 2022, p. 36, where the figure’s hot-pink skin, ruby trousers and crimson top are juxtaposed with periwinkle and lilac so that they vibrate. Beginnings, 2016, p. 9 is another dazzling example of how Avery’s colour placement enlivens her subject. Here, blue, turquoise, lavender and lilac are animated by the pillar-box red rocking chair, with the cream baby’s blanket the focal point of the canvas. Within Avery’s subject matter, we discover a startling contradiction that gives her work its iconic style. For while Avery considers painting an aesthetic activity, her themes are deeply personal. Family members, pets and friends appear and reappear in the tranquil comfort of their domestic spaces. We see Avery’s friend, the artist Sally Brody (Sally and Puck, 2020, p. 31) and her artist son, Sean Cavanaugh (Sean and Rumple, 1978, p. 27) at different stages of life, ageing through the years. Often, Avery’s subjects are engrossed in personal pursuits: enjoying a shared board game (Triple Jump, 1999 and Monopoly, 2020, both p. 28); absorbed by books (Rocking Chair Reader, 2009, p. 22 and Grandfather Reading, 2010, 2

p. 23); or relaxing together (Conversation, 1983, p. 12 and Garden Breakfast, 1995, p. 20). In every scenario, Avery’s subjects are relaxed, either unaware of or wholly comfortable with the artist’s presence. Avery’s genius is her rare ability to translate intimate domestic scenes into semi-abstract compositions. Her flat picture planes, interlocking shapes and simple forms hold Avery’s paintings between abstraction and figuration, where they hover and fluctuate, ‘art for art’s sake’ yet simultaneously documents of a life lived. And for Avery, that is a life lived in art. Avery grew up in New York at the epicentre of artistic circles; some of the Twentieth Century’s most celebrated painters, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman, were close friends of her parents, the artists Milton Avery and Sally Michel. As a child surrounded by artists, Avery ‘didn’t know anybody who wasn’t an artist. I thought everybody was an artist … I knew I would be a painter. It never occurred to me that I would do anything else.’ ‘In the Studio’ brings together forty paintings made over fifty years of this artistic life. It is Avery’s first solo exhibition outside of the United States and, given Waddington Custot’s long association with her family, this presentation in London feels overdue. It is therefore with great excitement that we present these vibrant and evocative paintings, which encompass and extend the great Twentieth Century flowering of American painting. Louise Malcolm

Young Forrest, 1970 oil on canvas, 91.4 3 121.9 cm

Dolmen, 2013 oil on canvas, 91.4 3 121.9 cm

Pasteum, 1995 watercolour on paper, 55.9 3 83.8 cm

The Sculpture Court, 1994 watercolour on paper, 55.9 3 83.8 cm

Solitude, 1987 oil on canvas, 127 3 163 cm

Beginnings, 2016 oil on canvas, 91.4 3 121.9 cm

Hill Town, 1975 oil on canvas, 102 3 153 cm

Houseplants, 1974 oil on canvas, 125 3 99.2 cm

Conversation, 1983 oil on canvas, 97 3 122.2 cm

David & Betsy, 1993 oil on canvas, 158 3 127.2 cm

Cloud over Cooper Lake, 2015 oil on canvas, 101.8 3 152.7 cm

Evening Mist at Cooper Lake, 2006 watercolour on paper, 55.9 3 76.2 cm

Tall Pines II, 2017 oil on canvas, 152.6 3 91.6 cm

Cloister, 2020 watercolour on paper, 57.2 3 75.6 cm

Sketch Class, 1995 watercolour on paper, 55.9 3 76.2 cm

Lone Cypress, 2015 oil on canvas, 91.4 3 121.9 cm

Sunday on the Beach, 2022 oil on canvas, 30.5 3 61 cm

Sisters, 2022 oil on canvas, 35.6 3 45.7 cm

Sunny Day Nudes, 2011 oil on canvas, 101.6 3 152.4 cm

Garden Breakfast, 1995 watercolour on paper, 55.9 3 76.2 cm

Windows in Nice Vieille Ville, 2003 watercolour on paper, 76.2 3 55.9 cm

Ancient Pear, 2004 oil on canvas, 121.9 3 91.8 cm

Rocking Chair Reader, 2009 oil on canvas, 35.6 3 27.9 cm

Windy Knoll Lane, 2007 watercolour on paper, 76.2 3 55.9 cm

Grandfather Reading, 2010 oil on canvas, 91.2 3 60.8 cm

Three Cypress, 2018 oil on canvas, 121.9 3 91.5 cm

Sails on the Nile, 2006 watercolour on paper, 76.2 3 55.9 cm

Quiet Water, 2005 watercolour on paper, 76.2 3 55.9 cm

French Fields, 1974 oil on canvas, 101.7 3 183.5 cm

Sean & Rumple, 1978 oil on canvas, 122 3 91.5 cm

Monopoly, 2020 watercolour on paper, 57.2 3 75.6 cm

Triple Jump, 1999 oil on canvas, 25.4 3 30.5 cm

Halloween Loot, 2020 oil on canvas, 61 3 76.2 cm

Slokum River, 2002 oil on canvas, 25.5 3 36 cm

Sally & Puck, 2020 oil on canvas, 76.2 3 61 cm

Frog Pond, 2020 watercolour on paper, 57.2 3 75.6 cm

Quiet Water, 2022 oil on canvas, 30.5 3 40.6 cm

Aquarium World, 1975 oil on canvas, 107 3 178.5 cm

Spring – Back of the Bishop’s, 2013 oil on canvas, 122 3 76.2 cm

Monday, 2022 oil on canvas, 30.5 3 61 cm

Relaxed Woman, 2022 oil on canvas, 45.7 3 35.6 cm

March Avery (b. 1932, New York) is a painter known for her use of intense, rich hues. The daughter of artists Milton Avery and Sally Michel, she began painting as a child, guided by her parents. The creative family had a routine of wintering in New York City, where they predominantly painted in oil. In summer, they took extended painting trips to places such as Gloucester on the Massachusetts coast, the Green Mountains in Vermont, California and Mexico to work en plein air. Artist friends Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman or Byron Browne often joined them. Growing up amid this artistic circle, Avery always believed she would become a painter herself. Nevertheless, on her father’s advice, she studied philosophy, not art, at Barnard College, New York, graduating in 1954. Avery continued to paint, her work included in two early family exhibitions, ‘Milton Avery, Sally Michel, March Avery’ at New Arts Gallery, Atlanta, in 1962 and ‘Avery Family Group Show’ at the Rye Free Reading Room, New York in 1963. Having married scholar and photographer Philip G. Cavanaugh in 1954, Avery gave birth to their son, the artist Sean Avery Cavanaugh, in August 1969. Established as a painter, March Avery continued her routine of punctuating winters working in her New York studio with trips outside the city: to the Catskill Mountains, Provence in southeastern France or Paestum, the ancient Greek city in modern-day Italy. With no division between life and art, Avery’s oil paintings, sketches and watercolours depict domestic scenes, portraits of friends and family members, and landscapes visited and revisited throughout a lifetime. Avery’s mastery of colour brings life, immediacy of place and emotional depth to her compositions, while her flat picture planes, interlocking shapes and simple forms hold them between abstraction and figuration. Today, Avery continues to paint as much as possible in her home studio in New York. 38

Avery’s work is represented in public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; Long Island Museum of American Art, Stony Brook, NY; Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN; Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY; among many others.

Published alongside the exhibition March Avery ‘In the Studio’ at Waddington Custot, 11 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LT 6 July – 17 September 2022 First published in the United Kingdom in 2022 by Waddington Custot Official copyright 2022 Waddington Custot, London Artwork images courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo p. 1: March Avery in the studio Photo: Philip G. Cavanaugh, courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo p. 2: March Avery Photo: Philip G. Cavanaugh, courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo p. 37: Milton, Sally and March Avery, Woodstock, New York, 1950 Photo: Lee Sievan, courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo p. 40: March Avery Photo: Philip G. Cavanaugh, courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo p. 42: March Avery, c. 1938 Photo: Unknown, courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or other information storage and retrieval systems, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Edited by Louise Malcolm Designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio Image preparation by Dexter Premedia ISBN: 978 -1-7397005 -1- 5