Milton Avery: American Colourist at the Royal Academy of Arts

Milton Avery is considered one of North America’s greatest 20th-century colourists. According to The New York Times, “Only Matisse – to whose art he owed much, of course – produced a greater achievement in this respect”. Avery’s career fell between the movements of the American Impressionists and the Abstract Expressionists, leaving him to forge a staunchly independent path.

This is the first comprehensive exhibition of Avery’s work in Europe (from 15 July 2022). It brings together a selection of around 70 paintings from the 1930s – 1960s that are among his most celebrated. These works typically feature scenes of daily life, including portraits of loved ones and serene landscapes from his visits to Maine and Cape Cod.

Marvel in the colour sensibility and balance that runs throughout his work – a style that was to have a major influence on the next generation.

It is a long overdue celebration of an American master who, in Rothko’s words, celebrated the world around him with a poetry that “penetrated every pore of the canvas to the very last touch of the brush”.

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Image: Milton Avery, Boathouse by the Sea, 1959

Oil on canvas. 182.9 x 152.4 cm, 72 x 60 in

© [2022] The Milton Avery Trust.

Courtesy Victoria Miro