Milton Avery
Boathouse by the Sea, 1959
Oil on canvas
182.9 x 152.4 cm
72 x 60 in
72 x 60 in
Rather than think, as we might ordinarily – and hierarchically – of study and completed work, Avery appears to ask us to consider his works on paper and in oils on equal terms. Or, rather, to think of each as aspiring to the optimum degrees – of luminosity, weight, emotive power--that their medium allows and his vision demands. The mixed media on paper Sail Loft and Orange Sky, 1959 and the oil on canvas Boathouse by the Sea, 1959--among the largest oils Avery completed, in which horizontals and diagonals suggesting sea, sky, sand and the deep shadow of a building in the foreground are pushed toward near-abstract zones of lambent colour – illustrate this compulsion as he worked across ever larger supports. Martin Coomer p. 54
We must never underestimate Avery’s tireless push for discovery and experimentation in his art. One must closely and carefully each work, not least his seeming anomalies. Everything was intentional, nothing obvious. The artist’s humility allowed him the to explore constant departures and forays from what had been tried and succeeded. This is not the least of his gifts to us.
With regard to his large-scale abstract Provincetown canvases of the late 1950s, and their related works on paper, it has been often discussed whether Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb, for whom Avery had been a mentor early in their careers, exerted a reciprocal influence. In a 1982 interview, Sally Avery said “They might have. I don’t know.” Asked whether in the paintings of “just the beach and real stark and simple, maybe some of that simplicity is encouraged by Rothko”, she replied “Maybe he gave him the courage to do it.” In the same interview, she stated: “Milton’s paintings are full of painting ideas. I mean they’re purely… they have no literary content. Even though they use recognizable subjects, what he did was so plastic that it’s taken the world a long time to understand it. But the artists were understanding it way ahead of the general public… His idea of painting was way beyond…
He really was very avant-garde but people didn't notice it so much because he still used natural objects. But his painting from an aesthetic point of view is very advanced. Painters recognized it immediately and they were very intrigued with it…”
There is a duality of opinion about these late abstractions. For Barbara Haskell, In Boathouse by the Sea, “the perception of a dimensional duplicity hinged on language – on verbal knowledge of the subject… Avery distilled forms to such a degree that the painting is initially perceived as an abstract arrangement of shapes, exclusive of recognizable subject. Only the title identifies it with an objective, three-dimensional scene.” Haskell (1982) p. 153 Stephen Polcari, however, sees in it a return to nature, and the “traditional triad in Avery’s art: earth, sea and sky…Thus Avery has absorbed the forms of Abstract Expressionism while maintaining his individual vision of an internal and external world.” Polcari (1999) n.p
Exhibitions
Milton Avery, The Modern, Fort Worth, TX, November 7, 2021 – January 30, 2022; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, March 5 – June 5, 2022; traveling to the Royal Academy of Arts, July 15 – October 16, 2022
Milton Avery: The Shape of Color, (organized by Waqas Wajahat LLC). Schwartz-Wajahat, New York, NY, 2016
Milton Avery: The Last Decade, Riva Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, February 16 - March 31, 2008
Milton Avery: The Late Paintings, (organized by American Federation of Arts, traveling). Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, November 30, 2001 - January 27, 2002
Milton Avery: Edge of Abstraction, Knoedler & Company, New York, NY, November 10, 1999 - January 22, 2000
Milton Avery: Paintings and Watercolours, Waddington Galleries, London, England, May 22 - June 15, 1996
Milton Avery and International Masters: Paintings and Works on Paper, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, NY, January 5 - January 19, 1994
Milton Avery: Major Paintings, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, NY, January 7 - February 1, 1984
Milton Avery—Early and Late, Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Bard College, Annandale-on- Hudson, NY, May 29 - July 31, 1981
to 1960, David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, February 21 - March 17, 1969
Milton Avery / American / 1893-1965, (organized by The Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, traveling). The Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Westbrook College, Portland, ME, July 9 - September 10, 1978
Publications
Milton Avery: Land and Seascapes 1958 to 1960, David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto, Ontario (1969). Illustrated.
Albee, Edward, John Canaday, et al. Milton Avery / American / 1893-1965, The Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art at Westbrook College, Portland, Maine (1978). Illustrated, p. 27.
Grad, Bonnie Lee and Sally Michel Avery. Milton Avery, Strathcona, Royal Oak, MI (1981). Mentioned in the text, p. 11.
Price, Marla and Leon Botstein. Milton Avery—Early and Late, Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (1981). #28, p. 43; mentioned in the text p. 15
Haskell, Barbara. Milton Avery, Whitney Museum of American Art with Harper & Row, New York, NY (1982). Figure 126, p. 155.
Price, Marla June. The Paintings of Milton Avery, UMI, University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI (1982). Fig. 224.
Avery, Sally M. Milton Avery: Major Paintings, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York (1984). Illustrated, n.p.
Milton Avery: Paintings and Watercolours, Waddington Galleries, London (1996). #18, p. 33; illustrated p. 23.
Polcari, Stephen. Milton Avery: Edge of Abstraction, Knoedler & Company, New York, NY (1999). Listed, illustrated; mentioned in the text.
Hobbs, Robert, Clement Greenberg, et al. Milton Avery: The Late Paintings, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. & The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY (2001). Plate 40, p. 87; p. 105.
Cohen, David. Milton Avery: The Last Decade, Riva Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ (2008). Listed
p. 56; illustrated p. 39.
Wajahat, Waqas. Milton Avery: The Shape of Color, Schwartz-Wajahat, New York, NY (2016). Frontispiece.
Milton Avery, essay by Edith Devaney. London: Victoria Miro, 2017, illustrated, n.p. Wajahat, Waqas. p. 36
Devaney, Edith, Monroe, Erin and Price, Marla. Milton Avery. London: Royal Academy of the Arts, 2021, illustrated, p.130
Milton Avery, exh. cat. (Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 7 November 2021 - 30 January 2022; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 24 February-5 June 2022; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 16 July-16 October 2022), illustrated p.131
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